


you always tell me to leave (but never told me not to come back)

by rubyknowbys



Category: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (TV 2018)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Fluff, Kind of enemies to lovers, Slow Burn, au where lilith raises sabrina too, hardcore slow burn, just sometimes, starts off funny and gets Way Too Deep™️
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-04
Updated: 2019-04-21
Packaged: 2019-11-08 23:55:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 27,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17990942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rubyknowbys/pseuds/rubyknowbys
Summary: The Dark Lord sends his female and loyal companion on a mission right after the death of Sabrina's parents. The lives of the girl's family are upside down, which doesn't stop Zelda Spellman from standing between Lilith and her plan. The only resolution the demoness finds to confront the witch is to get directly involved in this roller coaster.





	1. I

**Author's Note:**

> i took nikka's idea for a 60's au and transformed into angst and pain. thank you nikka for posting your wishes on twitter because that post illuminated my mind. 
> 
> i've been working on this for SO LONG and i just hope everyone likes it. i won't lie, i'm quite nervous...
> 
> thank you julia, because if weren't you, i wasn't going to post it. (for helping me with the summary too). and thank you hollie for reading it, telling me if the grammar is ok and giving me support! love you all <3

Lilith didn’t belong with humans, but the Dark Lord always made her come back to Earth to socialize and do _his_ dirty work. He was asking her ─ _not really asking_ ─, demanding her to stay years and years wasting her eternal time in a small city pretending to be someone else to lead a half-witch to his path. The thing was, she didn’t think it was necessary to do what he was asking her. He was literally asking her to co-parent this child with other witches. She could very well handle this girl and make her manipulation without failing in two weeks or less for this girl’s dark baptism and that could be the plan if he wasn’t so ignorant, she _sometimes_ wondered why he was in charge for all these years. Then she scolded herself for thinking such things.

She wasn’t going to question the Dark Lord, if he was asking her, it was because he still trusted her enough to do it. _And to do it well_. But her lack of questions about how he wanted her to do it just meant that she was planning to do some things in her way and her way only because she was more clever and knew how to plan things well.

First, she needed a human skin. A female skin, so she could be able to associate not only with mortals but with witches and warlocks, too. Some may think that’s something simple but no, it isn’t. She needed a plan, and she needed a woman who would make it quite easier for her, and that was the most difficult part.

While walking into the woods, she glamoured herself to look like a young woman who was attacked. A dirty, disheveled mess. She spotted a cottage that looked like it was abandoned, but she knew it wasn’t and knew that she had found her victim there. She began to run towards the house and knocked on the door as her life depended on it, and a woman with big blue eyes opened the door.

Now, it was show time.

The woman looked at her with all the worry she was feeling written all over her face and Lilith began to cry. The other woman started to grow exasperated and didn’t know what to do, so Lilith decided to make her even more nervous and started to sob louder and louder. When she touched her arm hesitantly, Lilith discovered everything about her life and gave a name to the face.

_Mary Wardwell._

She was going to pretend she was Mary Wardwell, a regular history teacher at Baxter High for the next 16 years. _Great._

“Oh my, what happened?” Mary asked Lilith with a soft voice, and they locked eyes with each other.

“Something attacked me… in the woods.” she said with her voice low, barely a whisper and changed her gaze to her hands. She knew that, at this point, she didn’t need to lie anymore, it was just kill the woman and possess her, but she was having fun with that little facade. She was going to test how far human innocence goes.

“If you want to talk about it, I’m here. You can trust me.” Mary gave her a reassuring smile and she smiled back. “I’m going to the kitchen to get some cookies, you must be hungry. I’ll be right back.” she shook her head positively and observed the woman going to the kitchen.

She socialized with a lot of humans through time to say: what an awful outfit.

Mary came back with a plate of cookies and sat down in front of Lilith, who smiled gratefully. “The woods is a dark place. What I saw there, will never be erased from my mind.” the woman was looking at her carefully and Lilith started to breathe hard. “It was a strange animal, surrounded by flames. I think…” Mary came closer to her to hear what she was saying because she was saying it in a low and careful voice . “I think I saw some kind of demon.”

The big blue eyes went wide and Lilith started to sob again. The woman came to her to hug her carefully and the demoness saw the right moment to kill her and get this over with. When the hug was broke, Mary still was close enough to her, and she could reach her throat easily.

“The good thing is, that I’m not that afraid of demons.”

“Well, that’s-”

Before the teacher could finish the sentence, Lilith just easily cut her throat. She watched the teacher falling into the ground and the blood spreading out in the floor, she leaned over the dead body and stuck her finger into the blood to take a sip of it, whispering a spell she used so many times before.

“I’m Lilith, the mother of demons, after all.”

 

***  


Edward was dead. Her brother was dead and he left a daughter, who certainly was going to resemble him and have his temperament. She was already seeing it, and those thoughts were hurting so much. Sabrina, the little baby in her arms was going to be under her care. Well, and Hilda’s too. She wasn’t going to cry anymore, she was going to take responsibility and do everything to take care of Sabrina and protect her.

Zelda was going to do _everything_ to take Sabrina into the right path. The Dark path. She could already see the great witch her niece was going to be.

Lost in the thoughts and doubts that she had about raising this child or sending her to the parents of her _mortal_ mother while she rocked her to sleep, she didn’t notice Hilda standing at the door, looking at her with knowing eyes.

“You know, I think you didn’t make a selfish choice by bringing her here. Stop thinking that, Zelds.” Hilda started with her voice low, to not wake the little girl sleeping. Zelda got up and put her in her crib.

“I won’t discuss that, Hilda. What is done is done and she is a Spellman. We are going to raise her. I’m not having any doubts.”

Hilda observed her sister leaving the room and shook her head. Her sister could try to hide the number of things she was feeling those days, pretend she wasn’t hurting but Hilda knew her sister and knew that all of this was a facade. She looked to the little girl sleeping soundly in the crib and smiled, they definitely could do it.

She went to the kitchen to find Zelda reading her newspaper and Ambrose with his feet on the table while eating breakfast. Hilda slaps Ambrose’s leg and gives him a look, but before she could sit down to eat her breakfast too, there was a knock on the door.

“Oh, for love of Satan! People should die only after lunch hour.” Zelda exclaims and rolls her eyes, putting her newspaper on the table. She got up, not realizing that Hilda was already going to the door. Hilda just shrugged and sat to eat her breakfast, unbothered by Zelda’s behavior.

“Welcome to the Spellman Sister’s Mortuary. How may I assist you with your pain?” Zelda said in an almost robotic way the sentence she had mastered because of the times she said it.

“Oh, I’m not here for your services, but I know some ways you could assist my pain.” The woman in front of her smirked and entered the house as if she owned the place. Zelda felt her blood starting to boil. Who was this _beautiful_ woman with big blue eyes and hair for days and why she was there?

She closed the door to reach the woman who was looking into the house and analyzing it. She didn’t understand and she needed answers.

“Excuse me. Who are you?” She couldn’t help it and started to check the woman out without her noticing, but of course, Lilith noticed, she always did.

“Forgive me for my rudeness. I’m… Mary Wardwell.”  The name tasted bitter on her mouth, but she turned to face Zelda and smiled kindly. She knew her, and she hoped to get the way into Zelda’s heart as she did in the past.  


** _1961_ **

_Zelda Spellman has always been kind of rebel, but she never crossed any lines like she was crossing lately. No one was happy with her having relationships with mortals. She never fell in love with them, it was something to Praise Satan for, but even he was unsatisfied with that situation._

_That’s why he called Lilith to solve whatever was happening because she was the queen of manipulation._

_The demoness laughed at the irony when she discovered that Zelda was in France. She was in the place where everyone falls in love and would be a shame for Zelda not to fall in love too. The only problem about having a human, especially a witch, falling in love with you was: How? That’s why this was going to be or a really tricky plan or a really easy plan._

_Hell, she didn’t understand humans and worse: she didn’t understand human emotions._

_Zelda went to a bar and Lilith glamoured herself to watch her from afar. The redhead was with a french bun and a red dress that was quite inviting for the eyes of who was watching. The demon smirked and realized that a lot of eyes were on her too. She needed to low her energy a little bit and look more like a mortal so Zelda didn’t realize that she wasn’t one._

_She had to pretend really well for that._

_Lilith watched Zelda all night, she was drinking, smoking and enjoying her own company. A lot of men’s propositions were ignored through the night and the demon started taking a shot every time a man was rejected by the redhead._

_Until a woman decided to take the risk and Zelda flirted back. The demon didn’t express any reaction but she was proud. When Zelda and the other woman made their way out of the bar, Lilith smirked to herself and asked for a shot of the strongest drink to the bartender._

_Now that she discovered Zelda’s preferences, she was more than happy that wouldn’t be that difficult to get close to her. Or seduce her._

 

It was going to be difficult, but Lilith would have to work to earn her trust to be able to be a part of Sabrina’s life. Or she could just try to earn the trust of Ambrose or Hilda. She was a manipulative bitch, but she was a manipulative bitch who made it well.

“Edward asked me to look after Sabrina and his family and here I am.” She motioned herself with her hands but Zelda was staring at her with half closed eyes and with her arms crossed over her chest.

“I’m not going to say that I am surprised. It’s very like Edward to do those things, but I’m not going to trust you with my niece.”

Zelda made her way to the door and opened it, standing by and glaring at Mary who just glared by and refused to leave. The witch felt her blood starting to boil again and took a deep breath to stop herself for doing something with this smug witch who was sent out of nowhere just to annoy her with this knowing smile. For Satan’s sake, she just wanted to kick Mary out of her house by force, this woman was a foreigner, she didn’t know her — didn’t want to — and the brunette was already acting like she owned their house. She couldn’t just trust her with anyone of her family. Deciding to act like she did when she needed to put up with members of the Church of Night she didn’t like, Zelda just smiled in the most forceful way she ever smiled and pointed to outside of the house.

“You can leave now.”

Mary arched her eyebrows but left like she was told to. She knew that her plan would work, it was just a matter of time. Meanwhile, Zelda was asking herself why Edward would send someone to take care of their family and his daughter. He didn’t trust them enough?

When she came back to the kitchen, Ambrose and Hilda were waiting for her with the same expression on their faces. Curiosity. It was something they mastered pretty well, actually.

“Apparently, Edward sent some witch to take care of us.” she rolled her eyes and Ambrose just furrowed his eyebrows. “I know, I’m confused too. And, if what she’s saying is true, I wouldn’t be surprised at all.”

“You didn’t even hear what she was going to say, Auntie Zee?” He asked with accusation in his tone and she half-closed her eyes in his direction.

“She didn’t seem trustworthy and we don’t need some witchy kind of babysitter. We are doing good on our own.” Sabrina started to cry ─ in fact, she was screaming her lungs out ─ upstairs and Zelda sighed. “Oh. Praise Satan this conversation is over.”

The next day, Mary decided to visit the Spellman’s house when Zelda wasn’t there. A smiling blonde opened the door and the “Welcome to the Spellman Sister’s Mortuary. How may I assist you?” came right away. Mary just smiled and explained that she wasn’t there for their services, she was there for Sabrina.

“Oh. Come in.” She was relieved that the blonde sister was the nicest side of the family and she would at least be willing to hear her story. “Would you like a nice tea?” she nodded and let herself be guided through the house to the kitchen.

She sits awkwardly while she waits and minutes later the blonde puts the drink in front of her.

“I’m sorry, but what’s your name again?”

“I’m Mary… Ma-Mary Wardwell.” She always struggled to say that name and couldn’t help her disgusted face. To be fair, Lilith didn’t like this name, it made her feel so… a virgin character on fiction books.

_Yes, that one. The Bible._

Hilda didn’t notice that lapse of disgust on Mary’s face. “Marvelous. I’m Hilda Spellman, and you apparently are the witch that my brother sent to be watching us. Tell me, why would he do such a thing?”

“I’m not from here. I was from another coven, but I fell in love with a mortal and was excommunicated when I got engaged.” she sighs and looks at the tea placed in front of her. “Turns out love isn’t the only thing that maintains relationships. After that, I met Edward, he was so ahead of his time and his ideas were so compatible with mine. We became good friends and I guess he just trusted me enough to ask me to look out for his family.” when she looks up again, Hilda is eyeing her with curiosity. Maybe trying to figure out if this little story was real.

“I think you are a really strong woman, if Edward trusted you, I guess I can trust you too.” Hilda smiles kindly but something inside of her was telling her that she shouldn’t trust this woman so quickly and this something sounded a lot like Zelda, so she just pushed those thoughts aside and let herself trust this woman. But not so much. You can always trust someone, but never forget to have some doubts about this person in the first place. “Anyway, how’s your tea?”

 

***

 

Zelda entered her house to see Ambrose and Hilda having a nice chat with the last woman she wanted to see at that moment. Mary. Of course she would have to come back.

“What she’s doing here? Someone care to explain?” she crosses her arms over her chest and glares at the three pairs of eyes glaring back at her. “I thought I sent you out of this house yesterday.” she stares directly at the woman with big beautiful blue eyes.

“You told me to leave but you never told me to not come back.” Mary smiles knowingly and Zelda just rolls her eyes. What an insufferable woman, for Satan’s sake.

“This was implied by the way I made so clear how unpleasant I find your presence.” she glares at Ambrose and Hilda, waiting for one of them to speak up.

“Auntie Zee. Wait. Just listen to what she has to say.”

Zelda made a gesture with her hands to Mary start to explain everything, but when the brunette opened her mouth to speak, Sabrina started to cry. The little girl seemed to cry only in inappropriate times. Hilda got up from her chair quickly. “I’ll just-“

Then she left the two women with an Ambrose ready to watch whatever was going to happen.

“Feel free to start whenever you want, I have all day, darling.”

 

** _1961_ **

_Coffee was the thing that Zelda loved most about France. Every morning she would visit a different cafeteria to start her day the best way possible. She was in France, Praise Satan for that, and she needed to enjoy the best of it._

_But, on that day, something that started unpleasantly but didn’t finish in the same way happened._

_She was walking down the streets of Paris when a blonde and extremely beautiful woman crashed with her, making her coffee fly. Zelda was ready to fight, but she was drawn to the beautiful pair of green eyes in front of her. The woman started to apologize in French but she didn’t understand a word because she wasn’t really listening._

_“It was nothing. Really. But I would really appreciate if you watched where you are going next time.”_ _Zelda smiled and moments later she realized that she answered the woman in English._

 _“Wouldn’t be so bad if we crashed again, wouldn’t it?”_ _The woman said with a thick French accent and smirked making Zelda’s brain collapse._

_The woman was flirting with her?_

_“Yes. Would be a really pleasant encounter, but with one condition: my coffee stays in my hand.”_ _she jokes and the blonde starts to laugh._

_“Well, I could buy you a coffee. What do you think?”_

_Zelda put a finger in her chin and pretended to think about it. There was no way that she would refuse such a good proposition._

_“I think that’s a great idea.”_

_They walked down the streets of Paris together, talking about everything and nothing at the same time. Names were not asked but from someone who was looking outside the situation, they seemed like they knew each other from a really long time._

_The French woman was a real enigma for the redhead but the truth was that Zelda was well known by the blonde. After all, Lilith had found a really great body to possess._

_They entered the cafeteria and Zelda looked for a good booth to sit and the blonde entered the line to ask for their coffees. When she sat in front of the redhead, they spent seconds staring at each other until the demoness decided to break the silence._

_“The only thing that I know about you is that you’re beautiful. Could you at least provide me your name?”_

_Zelda laughed. She knew that maybe she wouldn’t see the woman again but she could get used to the compliments._ _“I’m Zelda Spellman.”_

_“And I am Beatrice Rousseau. It’s nice to meet you, American girl.”_

_“Rousseau, like the philosopher?”_ _Beatrice nods and Zelda smiles like she was remembering something._ _“I knew him, he was a really smart man.”_

 _“You what?”_ _The demoness knew what the redhead had meant but she had to act like living more than 100 years was something absurd._

 _“I mean, from the books.”_ _Zelda laughs nervously and Beatrice eyes her suspiciously._

 

_***_

 

Zelda, for sure, was in an internal battle to choose if she was going to believe the woman or not. On one side, what Mary was telling them was something not that difficult to happen. Edward was really the only one from all covens who was able to marry a mortal without getting some kind of punishment. In fact, he got his punishment. His life was taken away from him.

She sighed, trying to kick those thoughts out of her head and pay attention to the woman in front of her.

While the brunette talked, Zelda tried to look right into her eyes to figure out if all the things she was saying were true. That just made her more confused. The internal battle just grew even more.

“If you want me to say that I trust you now after this little story of yours, you are sorely mistaken.” she stared at Mary, who was staring her back and didn’t seem affected by her hard tone.

“It’s cute that you think that I’m not going to do my job just because you don’t approve it.” Zelda heard Ambrose snorting and trying to mask it with a cough. Mary smiled triumphantly with the redhead’s outraged face, checked her watch and got up, getting her purse. “That was a pleasant conversation, but I have to go.”

She said her goodbye to Ambrose and Hilda, who had just come back after she put Sabrina to sleep again, and passed by Zelda to the door without talking to her, disregarding her presence. The redhead rolled her eyes and left her sister and nephew smirking faces in the kitchen to close the door with some real force behind Mary.

When she got back to the kitchen, Ambrose and Hilda were not smirking anymore, they were just as serious as her now. She arched an eyebrow and they just stared at her. As always, her nephew was the one who broke the silence. “She seems very determined.”

“I don’t understand why you don’t like her. You should let yourself trust her just a little bit.” Hilda said and Zelda rolled her eyes again. Sometimes the blonde got scared that one day her sister would roll her eyes so hard that her retinas would detach. “Edward sent her here. He would not do that if he didn’t trust her enough.”

“We don’t even know if she’s telling the truth!” Zelda says, exasperated. Ambrose was in the middle of the fight, looking between his aunts to see if something was going to happen. When Zelda threatened to just get out instead of resolve things, he had to intervene.

“Oh-kay, you two. I know you both have different opinions about this woman, but you’ll have to live with it. It’s not like she’s not going to come back at any moment.” He took a deep breath and looked at Hilda “And seriously though, you didn’t found strange that she’s here to protect Sabrina but didn’t ask to see her at all?”

“That’s because she knows that Zelda wouldn’t let her!” She pointed to her sister, who was lighting a cigarette.

“Oh, please.” Zelda laughed like she had won the discussion and Ambrose groaned. He didn’t want to take sides but they’re acting like he just had. “He has a point!”

The discussion lasted hours and didn’t go anywhere. Zelda and Hilda may be two different people but they had this one little thing in common: stubbornness. In fact, all the Spellmans were at least a little bit.

  



	2. II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well, you all can imagine Beatrice's appearance in your own way, but I always imagine her as Julie Delpy when I'm writing about her!

Zelda was in Sabrina’s bedroom, rocking her to sleep and humming the song _Tous Les visages de l’amour_ , by Charles Aznavour. Even with her kind-of-hate against everything from France, this song was her exception. Mostly because it was the first France related thing that she didn’t hate immediately and because it was a beautiful song too.

She looked at the little baby in her arms and smiled. Sabrina was so little, with her big colored eyes and chubby cheeks. Her eyes started to fill with tears while she started to think about how they’re going to raise a half-witch. Looking back at her past, her mother made it seem so simple raising a bunch of full witches and warlocks, she knew it wasn’t and she knew that even with Sabrina being a half-witch, things were not going to be easier at all. Even with Sabrina being an infant, her nights of sleep had decreased, because her niece was little, but the noise she did wasn’t. She looked up and blinked to stop herself from crying.

Zelda got up and walked by the room still humming the song to Sabrina, but suddenly she stopped, looked again at the sleeping baby in her arms and kissed her forehead. “I love you. I would go to the moon and back to protect you, my little Sabrina.” the redhead whispered to the baby and for a moment, she thought that she saw her smiling in her sleep and that made her smile as well.

She left little Sabrina sleeping soundly in her crib and went to the bedroom she shared with Hilda, who was already sleeping. Noticing something strange in her window, she went to see what it was and noticed a black crow, flying away from the window. The redhead furrowed her brows, asking herself if she ever saw one in Greendale.

She decided that she would ask Hilda and Ambrose later about crows in Greendale.

In the bright morning, her plans were already ruined even before she woke up because of the sound of laughter coming downstairs. She couldn’t believe that woman had appeared again. Of course she had. She was trying to befriend her family so Zelda could lose her right to say something against her. She felt the urge to go there and try to put some sense in their head but she just stayed on her bedroom pretending she was asleep until the woman wasn’t in her house anymore because she knew the witch would leave soon, at least she hoped.

Minutes after that decision, her stomach betrayed her.

She got up and tightened her robe around herself, getting out of the room. She checked on Sabrina and wondered if Hilda had given her sunbath this morning and walked downstairs. She went to the kitchen and found the exact same picture that she imagined earlier. Mary was in their house, having breakfast and having a conversation with Ambrose and Hilda that she didn’t want to participate.

“Good morning.” she greeted her family like every day and disregarded Mary’s presence, like the other woman had done the day before, and started to eat the delicious ─ though she would never admit it to her sister ─ meal Hilda prepared. The others greeted her back and got back to their conversation. Zelda didn’t catch much but Hilda was teaching Mary about her favorite thing in the world: anything related to potions and making them.

The bitch was really trying way too hard to steal their hearts.

But she wasn’t going to buy this faux-sympathy and pseudo interest in being part of the family. She was going to be smarter than the rest of her relatives and discover what this woman is up to.

She lit up her cigarette and choose a German newspaper to read this morning, but most of the time she was supposed to spend reading, was spent listening to their conversation and trying to figure out what kind of spell the brunette was using to make her sister and nephew love her so fast.

“Earth to Zelda!” the ginger was woken from her thoughts and put her newspaper down, realizing who was talking to her. Mary Wardwell. “I was wondering when I am going to meet the little girl who’s going to call me Auntie Mary.”

_1961_

_After their first encounter, Zelda and Beatrice didn’t see each other for a couple of days because Zelda was solving some witch affairs in France that his brother asked her to and would be a lot suspicious if the redhead saw Beatrice in one of them._

_So, when Zelda had everything done, she gave herself a break._

_The bar where she always went was open, so she entered it like she owned the place. Her hair was beautiful, her outfit was on point and everyone’s eyes were on her because Zelda was truly a work of art._

_Suddenly, someone bumped into her. Again._

_French people really don’t have a sense of perception, do they?_

_“Zelda! I really have a habit of bumping into you.”_ _the blonde laughed._ _“Or that’s just destiny trying to aggressively put us together?”_ _she whispered with a husky voice that made Zelda shiver._ _Beatrice would never give up on flirting with her._

_“Well, at least I’m not holding a drink this time.”_

 

_***_

 

Mary really liked to see Zelda Spellman getting angry. It was becoming the best activity she had to do with this new life. When she asked to see Sabrina, the girl who would “call her Auntie Mary one day", she almost laughed at the way that Zelda’s face got red. And when she smirked at the redhead woman, her face got impossibly redder.

It was becoming funnier and funnier to tease Zelda each day, but the woman did the most unexpected thing.

“Alright. Let’s see how well you bond with Sabrina.” Zelda said and Mary’s face fell. She was a demon, she never bonded with human infants because she didn’t need to. Right, she was the Mother of Demons but they’re demons, it was a really different thing.

This _fucking_ witch was going to destroy her plan with her smartass moves.

Zelda got up of her chair with a triumphant smile in her face. She was sure that her niece wasn’t going to like the Wardwell witch either and their bond was going to be impossible to be created. They climbed the stairs and Sabrina started to cry, what made Zelda smile even more because she knew how hard was to make her niece calm down.

“I’ll need to calm her down, right?” Mary asked as they entered the room and Zelda nodded. She went to where the crib was and looked down at the crying baby with just a little bit of blonde hair and felt something akin to fondness, but she shook it off quickly as it came.

“Did you ever hold a baby before?” Zelda asks with a little bit of concern, but her concern only grows higher when Mary answers her question.

“Why would I?” Zelda looks at her with wide eyes and gets Sabrina, holding her close and trying to soothe her cries but they were getting louder. “Changed your mind?” she smiles knowingly and Zelda gets closer to her with the baby.

“No,” Zelda smiles but stops before she let Mary at least try to hold the blonde baby between them. “but if you drop my niece, I’ll have to kill you.”

“I’m not stupid, Spellman.”

Zelda hands the baby who didn't stop to cry but was doing so more quietly for a Mary who was feeling very awkward but managed to hold her in the right way. Always sustaining her head, like the redhead had remembered her three times in less than one second.

To everyone’s surprise, little Sabrina didn’t reject the brunette's hold and stopped to cry, which made her look at Zelda, who was watching their interaction with an arched eyebrow.

“I think we are bonding very well, don’t you think?” Mary asked with a false tone of innocence as if she wasn’t referring bitterly at the thing Zelda said earlier and looked at the girl in her arms, smiling.

The redhead sighed. Less one on her side right now. “Yes, you are.”

 

***

 

It was always a new experience when the demoness chooses new skin for herself. Being the first which meant that her powers were a lot stronger than any average witch and when she touched Mary Wardwell before killing her, she had the access to everything in her mind.  She had access to every little detail in the woman’s life, her fears, some crucial points in her personality and having this kind of knowledge was very important since she needed to live Mary Wardwell’s life from now on.

The demoness always felt that it was a lot easier to socialize with witches and warlocks than with mortals, because mortals always emanate a lot of bad energy and don’t have the capacity to block it, always sharing it with others. It was like a snowball.

The biggest example of this was the unease she was feeling every time she entered the school where she had to work. It was a place full of people and the demoness felt a great amount of unnecessary energy there. She always could use the excuse of witches not being allowed to be around mortals and just stop going there, but if she did, certainly it would attract a lot of attention for her strange behavior.

_And nobody would want that._

She went to her office and looked around. It was a nice place. The original Mary didn’t have a good taste for outfits, that she was aware, but she did have a good taste for decoration. Well, she could let this trace of personality intact, but she would have to change a lot of them. Especially this lack of confidence Mary Wardwell had when she talked with other people.

She never acted like that, it wasn’t going to be in this part of her eternal life that she was going to.

But there was a good thing about this choice of skin and having access to the principal aspects about her victim: Mary Wardwell knew everything about the history and the witches in Greendale, which means that she could keep some aces up in her sleeve for later.

Breaking her line of thoughts, there’s a knock on her door and she rolls her eyes before allowing the person on the other side to come in.

“Excuse me, Ms. Wardwell.” The Principal showed his face and she gave him a forceful smile. “I need to talk to you for a moment.”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Russell, but I am not free right now, I have classes in five minutes” she got up from her chair and grabbed a few books, the man tried to smile charmingly at her and her forceful smile was still in place.

“Oh, ok. Maybe after your classes you could go to my office for some minutes before going home.” she nodded but he didn’t just go away, he stayed in the door. In her way to get out and she waited patiently until he realized why she was standing in front of him like that.

When she went to give her classes, she praised Satan for still having Mary’s memory with her, because she would never care to learn her schedules. Or the names of her students, or how teaching actually worked out.

When the first students entered the class, they all looked at her up and down and she smiled at them as if she hadn’t realized how they were checking on her and making faces like she was a new alien in town. They were not used to the new outfits and the makeup she was using but no awkwardness lasts long anyway. In a few minutes, everyone was in their right seats and no one was whispering about her anymore.

Of course, she knew this behavioral change was going to make some people suspicious, but it would be a cold day in hell if she allowed herself to use such conservative clothes again.

The checking and whispering continued happening until her last class and she was exhausted. She didn’t want to be a teacher anymore. It was so difficult having to deal with all these teenagers.

But it wasn’t only the teenagers she needed to handle. In fact, there was a white man who thinks he’s in charge waiting for her to have a conversation in his office and she has no idea what’s the subject he wants to talk about.

She gives slow steps to his office and knocks the door, but opens it before she can hear his voice telling her to come in.

”I’m in the right time, Mr. Russell?” she smiles forcefully and he spends a lot of time to actually respond to her because he was eyeing her with no shame. She battled with the urge to roll her eyes but stayed in place, maintaining her smile.

”Yes, you are. Have a seat.” she seats in the chair in front of him and crosses her leg, a movement she regrets because the eyeing continues. ”It has brought to my attention that the boys of the athletic team are having bad grades in your subject. I can’t have them failing.”

”Well,” She was already seeing how this was going to end. He would ask her to pass them for free. ”They are the only ones failing my subject. With all due respect, they are the problem, not me.”

”So, what do you suggest?”

”I suggest that they study more. All of my students have the same classes. If a certain group is failing, is not my fault.” She shrugs and he looks at her with some kind of outrage but for her, he just looked as if he were constipated.

”I can’t have my team failing any subjects.” She looks at him trying to give him a sympathetic look, tilting her head a little bit.

”If you are so desperate about this, you should talk to them, not me. I know you can do a little threatening.” She gets up from the chair and taps his shoulder as an encouragement, then fixes her dress as if the conversation is over. Well, was over for her, because she didn’t want to continue talking with this silly man.

”Our conversation is not over yet.” He looks at her with confusion clouding his face and she looks bemused about it. ”Actually, I was going to ask if you are free-”

She looks at her watch and gasps, with an alarmed expression. ”Oh, is so late! Sorry, Mr. Russell, I have to go back to my… children. You understand, right?”

She doesn't see him nodding because she was quick to get out of the door. Lilith does a disgusted face when she realizes that he was actually going to ask her out, not that it wouldn’t be a good thing because she hadn’t feasted in some time, but it would be a lot suspicious if he disappeared out of nowhere.

Was this even ethical?

Good thing was that she’d told a convenient lie to get this man out of her hair and laughed at the absurdity of it. It would be a funny thing if he discovered that her children were not human at all. Maybe she could tell him that before she feasts in his flesh. She entered her car and remembered another child she needed to take care of and smiled.

 

***

 

While some songs played on the background, Hilda was making dinner and Zelda was feeding Sabrina, singing the song that was being played because her little niece loved to be induced to sleep with some music.

The question about the crows hadn’t left her head all day because it was indeed very strange to have this kind of bird in Greendale, so she decided to finally ask her sister and get over with this curiosity. “Hilda, have you ever seen crows in Greendale?”

“Crows in Greendale? That’s new.” she frowns, trying to remember if she ever has seen one, but no remembrance at all.

She thinks about asking Ambrose, but he wouldn't know because he can’t leave the house and spent most of his days isolated with his corpses and his books. So she just drops the subject. There’s a knock on the door and she frowns, asking herself who it would be because her daily annoyance came in the morning. Hilda answers the door, and she discovers that her annoyance is back again.

”Why are you here?” Is the first thing she asks when she sees Mary again.

“Good evening for you too. Is nice to see you again.” Mary says with the most high level of irony she could muster. “Hilda invited me for dinner.”

The redhead glares at her sister with her eyes half-closed. “And why she would do that?”

“Because I’m the one cooking dinner.” Hilda shrugs and ignores her sister’s glare. ”I found it strange because Mary said she wouldn't be able to come.”

”I didn't want to annoy your sister even more, but I said to the Principal that I needed to come back to my children, so here I am.” She battles against her laughter when she sees the confused faces that she caused.

”Children? The only child here is Sabrina.” The little one was still in her aunt’s arms, unaware of the conversation they’re having.

Mary smirked to herself and got closer to Zelda. Ignoring the lack of distance between the two of them, she looked at Sabrina, who wasn’t sleeping and had her big eyes watching everything. “I know that.” The little baby grabbed her finger and she smiled sweetly at her but leaned closer to Zelda. “But you can be a little childish, sometimes, you know?” she whispered and Zelda gasped.

“How dare-“

She’s interrupted by a hungry Ambrose who appeared out of nowhere. “When dinner’s gonna be ready, Aunties?” Zelda rolls her eyes and leaves the kitchen with Sabrina, Hilda continues making dinner and Mary sits with a smug expression in her face.

Ambrose is left without any understanding of what just happened.

Upstairs, Zelda’s blood is boiling and she’s with so much rage that she leaves Sabrina in her crib and keeps walking around the room to calm herself. Who really is this woman and who she thinks she is to talk to her like that?

Her outrage was interrupted by an equally angry Sabrina who started to cry. She got up and held the baby in her arms, soothing her cry and trying to make her sleep. When she manages to do that, she sighs and looks at Sabrina. “I wonder why everyone likes this woman so much.” She laughs at herself. “Well, you wouldn’t know, you’re just an infant, but I have my own theories.”


	3. III

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello again, you guys missed me?  
> this is my favorite chapter, so i'm hoping it's yours too!
> 
> PS.: Vesta Spellman = Patricia Clarkson

It was a surprise to literally no one that Mary was still Zelda’s daily annoyance as the days went by. Every morning before she went to school, Mary would show up before Zelda woke up and go with Hilda to give Sabrina her sunbathes. The months passed by and her daily alarm had become the laughs that she was always able to hear even though they were coming downstairs. And as a surprise to literally no one that everyone ─ including Sabrina ─ got used to her presence there and Zelda was the only one who still didn’t trust her.

But Mary becoming, somehow, part of the family happened so naturally for the others that they didn’t even notice the change.

Zelda always noticed because it wasn’t _natural_ for her.

She noticed that Mary was there when Sabrina started a new way of communicating with her aunties: babbling.

That day was one of those days where everyone woke up with a bad mood but Mary didn’t join the Spellmans with the lack of good mood, so she did what she was doing every day in the last months, she woke up in the morning and made her way to the Spellman’s house, so she could join Sabrina and Hilda on the ritual of the sunbathes. She knocked on the door, expecting Hilda to answer it, but was surprised when she met Zelda, who was with an unfriendly expression and a roll of eyes.

“Where’s your sister?” Mary asked, entering the house and going straight to the kitchen, expecting to find Hilda there, but she wasn’t there too. Zelda sat on the chair of the kitchen’s table and lit a cigarette, grabbing the first newspaper she found.

“She’s sleeping. I don’t know what might have caused it, but she was sick all night and I was with her, trying to make her drink the potion that I made.” She sighs and starts reading her newspaper as if what she just said didn’t affect her at all.

“So, you’re the one going out with us?” the brunette asked with an eyebrow raised and Zelda looked at her with a confused expression.

“What do you mean by going out?” She tried to not sound so alarmed by the possibility of Mary wanting to go out with her even if Sabrina was her excuse. She really thought her mind and her lack of sleep were tricking her into thinking that Mary would really try to put up with her just to have some minutes with Sabrina.

She didn’t know what was worse. Mary wanting to go out with Sabrina alone or wanting her to go with them. At that moment she just wished that Ambrose would wake up soon so she could push him into the situation and making him go with her. Then she remembered that he couldn’t actually go out. Ugh. Why life was so difficult for her?

“Sabrina certainly needs her D vitamin and listen to other people talking so she can develop her ability to talk too.” Mary crosses her arm over her chest and waits impatiently for Zelda to get up and go with her, but she just stays sit, glaring at her. “Oh, you don’t want to go? I can go alone with her, then.”

Mary walked out of the kitchen angrily and mumbling about how irresponsible this kind of behavior was loud enough to Zelda to hear. The redhead was left wide-eyed for a few seconds with the idea of Mary having the audacity of even thinking of going out alone with her niece but she recovered from the shock and followed the brunette upstairs. The first thing the demoness did was check how Hilda was, but the blonde was still asleep. Then she went to Sabrina’s bedroom and smiled to see that the little blonde was already awake and sat in her crib.

“Are you full of energy today and ready to make your aunt even crazier than she is?” She whispers to Sabrina and starts to tickle her belly, making the little one laugh. When she senses Zelda’s presence in the room, she stops, pretending she wasn’t being _soft_ seconds ago and holds Sabrina, getting out of the room and disregarding Zelda’s presence.

“How dare you insult me and call me irresponsible?” Zelda goes after the brunette, trying to hide the hurt in her voice. Mary stops in the middle of the corridor and turns around to glare at her. “Who do you think you are to go out with Sabrina alone?”

“As I recall, I’m her unholy godmother.” Is the answer that Zelda gets and she scoffs at that, a movement that is received with a roll of eyes.

What bothers Zelda more about the statement is that is not a lie, considering that the story about Edward is true. Her brother literally asked the woman to take care of his daughter and his family if anything happened to him. Without saying the words, he basically asked her to be Sabrina’s unholy godmother.

“You are not. You are just an excommunicated witch who thinks you have some kind of right in this family.” Zelda says with such venom in her tone that the demoness never thought she could muster, but it didn’t affect her at all. “You are not trustable and I am going to find out what you are up to, you damned spinster.”

“I am single, yes, but never alone.” Mary winks at Zelda and laughs at the redhead’s reaction. Zelda is so angry by the way Mary avoided the fight that she didn’t think much about the fact that the thing the brunette just said made her feel so uneasy. Mary’s laugh is only interrupted by Sabrina babbling angrily at her aunt. They watch her, Mary with an amused face and Zelda still with her surprised visage. Surprisingly, the first one that breaks out and starts laughing is Zelda because of the way she received a lecture from her own niece. She couldn’t believe it and hopes the attitude don’t continue when she grows up. “See? She’s on my side.” Mary says with a smug smile, ruining the moment.

Zelda rolls her eyes.

 

** _1961_ **

_Beatrice was the most intense relationship Zelda ever had. It was mostly because Zelda never had such a long-term relationship and because the demoness did everything to keep the redhead interested. But nothing could make Zelda uninterested anymore, because she was already in love with the blonde. They spent months touring around Paris, Beatrice showing everything she could show there. Then, one day, the blonde asked if Zelda wanted to expand horizons with her and they started to tour around Europe._

_The demoness realized that Zelda was the kind of lover that loved adventures, but had her moments where she only wanted to be a little quiet sometimes._

_They were in their room at the hotel playing cards. Beatrice was letting Zelda win and the redhead was feeling really smug at the fact that she was winning at everything. Suddenly she stops and gets up, making the demoness confused._

_“You know, years ago I’ve been able to go to Brazil and I just remembered a Brazilian song that makes me think of you.”_ _Zelda says shyly and goes to the record player, pretending she’s trying to find the vinyl record and making it shows up with magic._

_Eu não existo sem você by Maysa starts to play and Zelda walks slowly to Beatrice’s direction extending her hand to her, who gladly accepts it and they start to dance slowly into the rhythm of the song. The blonde is slightly taller than Zelda, and that’s why she was dancing on her tiptoes, whispering the lyrics of the song to her lover._

_Those kinds of moments made the demoness confused about a lot of things. She really didn’t know what she felt for the other woman because she never felt like this for anyone. It was some kind of fondness, the kind of fondness that every time she looked at Zelda, she asked herself why she was still following the Dark Lord’s instructions. Her mind was full of questions about why she was actually doing this. She sighed and started to kiss Zelda’s neck. She was trying to feel something. Realize if she actually felt something. So she stopped dancing and pulled slightly back to look at Zelda, look at her beauty, trying to memorize every line she had on her face. The redhead smiled sincerely to her lover and what she received was a kiss. But it didn’t feel like an ordinary kiss._

_And it wasn’t. Because it made the demoness feel something. She didn’t know what it was, but it was something._

_“Ah, my sweet Zelda.”_ _Zelda heard the blonde whisper these words to her and it made her feel even more sure that what they had wasn’t ordinary at all._

 

_***_

 

Zelda was still noticing Mary’s presence every time and now she was starting to wonder why it felt natural for everyone but her.

Another special moment she noticed that Mary was there, it was when Sabrina said her first word.

Sundays were unholy days to the Spellman family and Mary knew that even though she wasn’t the most devoted follower of Satan like Zelda was. And she had to keep up with the facade of an excommunicated witch, so she didn’t even try to go to the cults of the Church of Night with them. But there was one Sunday she forgot about the cult and appeared in their house anyway.

Zelda was dressing Sabrina to go to the cult, Hilda was already ready to go and was waiting for her sister while making tea for herself. Ambrose was reading books in his room because he wasn’t able to leave the house anyway. Hilda was the one who opened the door for her and seemed very surprised to see the brunette there.

“Mary! You are going to church too?” She asked with her eyes half-closed and Wardwell’s eyes widened.

“Oh, Satan.” She sighed and looked rather embarrassed about appearing there in such inconvenient hour. “I forgot about that.”

“Come in, is not like Zelda is not going to take hours to dress, anyway.” Hilda laughs, making the brunette laugh too. They go to the kitchen and the blonde makes other cups of tea appear with magic.

Minutes later, they hear the sound of Zelda’s high heels coming downstairs and the sound of Sabrina’s laughter while she played with her aunt’s hair. The redhead entered the kitchen and Mary was already checking her out and nodding her head positively to show that she liked what she was seeing, making Zelda blush.

She was divine. Zelda was already breathtakingly beautiful without putting any effort into it, but when she did, there were no words to describe her beauty. Mary felt something like that feeling she felt years ago. She still didn’t know what it was, because it wasn’t something she was used to feeling.

”What are you doing here?” Zelda asked Mary and cleared her throat. Sabrina realized her unholy godmother’s presence and extended her arms to her, Mary smiled to the little one and got her from Zelda’s arms.

”Don’t worry. I’m not giving you the shame of going to church with an excommunicated witch.” Sabrina started to play with Mary’s necklace and babbling as if she was participating in the conversation.

”Praise Satan for that.” She took Hilda’s cup of tea and started to drink it. Her sister arched her eyebrow at her audacity but didn’t say anything.

Sabrina stopped babbling for a moment and everyone looked at her because she was looking like she was too concentrated to say anything. Then, one moment, she started to try to say one word and they paid more attention to her. Everyone was curious to see if she was ready to say her first word.

”S-Satan!” The little girl said with a laugh and Zelda laughed too because she was too delighted with the fact that her little niece’s first word was the Dark Lord’s name. Hilda wasn’t too pleased but gave a little smile and Mary glared at the girl incredulously and arched her eyebrow.

”That’s your fault.” Mary accuses Zelda, pointing her finger and glaring at her with her eyes half-closed. “She’s a girl, if you wanted her to say unholy names, you should have taught her to say ‘Lilith’ instead of ‘Satan’”

Zelda rolls her eyes. “You are insufferable. And never satisfied with anything.”

“I know some things that could keep me satisfied.” Mary says with a smirk and winks at Zelda, who rolls her eyes one more time.

Hilda chokes on her tea.

 

** _1961_ **

_Zelda always carried a mirror with her. If someone of her family was in trouble and needed her, they could contact her with their mirrors and vice-versa. When her lover was sleeping, she would always call Edward with her magic mirror._

_“Let me guess,”_ _Edward says in the instant he picks up and smiles widely._ _“You are going to say that Beatrice is… divine?”_

 _“No. I was going to say that she is magical.”_ _She deadpans and he laughs at her. He was concerned about this relationship but was the most supportive of the family about it._

 _“You are so in love, sis.”_ _Zelda couldn’t deny it. She really was, so she rolls her eyes jokingly and he gets serious suddenly._ _“Zelda, you need to be careful. She’s a mortal. You could be excommunicated of the Coven.”_

 _“I’m always careful.”_ _It wasn’t a lie though. She was being extremely careful. She didn’t want Beatrice discovering that she’s a witch and leaving her because of that, and also didn’t want any witch or warlock that knew her and her family’s legacy to discover that she was having a relationship with a mortal. Before Edward says something, her sister Vesta comes from behind him and asks the question all Spellman family members were dying to know._

 _“You already told her that you’re a witch or you are just waiting for the moment that she’ll catch you?”_ _She crosses her arms over her chest and arches her eyebrow, demanding an answer._

 _“I am going to tell her! I am just waiting for the right moment.”_ _Vesta scoffs. She knew that her sister would never reveal herself for this woman because she was too afraid to do so._

 _“You are acting so out-of-character, Zelda.”_ _She sighs and leans closer to the mirror, Zelda looks at her hands and Vesta groans with impatience. Edward just keeps looking between the two of them, waiting for Zelda to say something, but she doesn’t._ _“Be honest with yourself. If you don’t trust this woman enough to tell her about that crucial part of your life, then why are you with her?”_ _Vesta inquires an answer, but it doesn’t come. Zelda keeps looking down and Vesta throws her hands in the air like she was giving up on the subject and gets out, mumbling that she ‘haven’t changed Zelda’s diapers with magic and practically helped to raise her for her to grow up and be a fucking coward’ loud enough for Zelda to hear it._

 

_***_

 

When Sabrina started to walk by herself, it was a joyful moment in the Spellman’s home.

It was an afternoon and Ambrose wasn’t being his antisocial self with his books and was trying to help Sabrina to walk. Zelda was pretending she was reading her Satanic Bible and acting as if she wasn’t watching the two of them. Hilda was singing around the house and magicking the cleaning tools for them to clean the house by themselves.

“What if I let you walk by yourself, cous? Can you do it? Are you ready?” He asked her and the baby responded with a big smile.

“Bose!” That was the way Sabrina called him and he laughed. Still holding her hand, he helped with two steps and let go of one little hand. Another step and she was without his support to walk. But Sabrina didn’t give up, even without support she managed to give three more steps before falling.

Hilda and Zelda stopped what they were doing just to pay attention to what she was doing next.

Sabrina managed to get up on her two feet and give a lot of steps before falling again, but she didn’t give up. She just got up again and tried again.

“Now, nobody can stop her.” Ambrose says with pride and the two sisters started to laugh.

Zelda was beaming with so much pride, and she knew that walking was only one of the many accomplishments that they were going to witness. She stopped a little and realized that she hadn’t heard any sassy comment about it and looked around the room. Mary wasn’t there.

So many times noticing how unnatural was Mary’s presence there, and now she noticed that was also unnatural when she wasn’t there.

_Maybe she was getting used to her, after all._

With a roll of eyes, she got up and walked slowly to the telephone, not believing that she would do it and daring herself to stop, but she continued walking anyway. Sabrina saw a perfect opportunity and started to walk behind her aunt.

She grabbed the telephone and magicked it to call Mary Wardwell’s office number. Sabrina looked up at her and hugged her leg, making her laugh and melt at the affection the little one was showing at her.

“Hello?” She heard the sweet whispered voice on the other line and took a deep breath to force herself to say something.

“Mary. It’s me, Zelda.” She said with a calm that wasn't there if we looked inside her.

“Something happened with Sabrina?” Mary asked with concern and Zelda took another deep breath. Mary wasn’t family, but she kind of was. Her presence there wasn’t _natural_ , except it was.

“Yes. I mean, nothing bad. She’s walking by herself now.” Mary gasps with surprise, she was almost as proud as everyone in the Spellman family with that news. “I wanted you to know the news, so you won’t be surprised when Sabrina runs to you tonight when you come for dinner.”

“I can’t believe I missed it." She stops for a moment. "Wait. Are you inviting me for dinner?” She asks with that low, husky voice. The tone she always uses when she wants to tease Zelda.

“Read it as you want.”  



	4. IV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello i'm back uwu

Lilith sighed. She was being weak again like she was, back in 1961. If someone asked her if it was good to be who she was and serve the Dark Lord with all her being, she wouldn’t know what to say.

In 1961, Lilith was weak because she took the role of a lover too seriously and actually became attached to the victim of her manipulation. At the time, she tried to refuse it, to hide the feeling into the deepest of her being, but looking back, she didn’t do it very well. The worst was, she still didn’t know what that kind of feeling was or what it meant because the only kinds of feelings she recognized were hope, anger, and disgust. Bad feelings.

Some might say that _hope_ is a good feeling. Not for Lilith. Not when you’re Satan’s foot soldier; not then you are living with the hope of someday becoming the Queen of Hell. This kind of hope is a dangerous thing, especially when is fed by the one who can make all of that stop being just hope and become a true, vivid reality.

In The Series of Unfortunate Events, Lemony Snicket says that “The death of a loved one is like walking up the stairs to your bedroom in the dark, and thinking there is one more stair than there is. Your foot falls down, through the air, and there is a sickly moment of dark surprise as you try to readjust the way you thought of things.” Lilith didn’t have loved ones, but she felt the same thing about her relationship with Satan. She felt like she was always going to think that there is one more stair than there is until the end of times.

The demoness was constantly feeling guilty about thinking those things about her Dark Lord. She needed to be grateful. He saved her from the false god’s grip, after all.

But her gratitude was so insanely vast that she couldn’t stand up for herself?

She should not be thinking about those kinds of things. She respected the Dark Lord. He was her master, his goals were her goals. She needed to be grateful; still couldn’t help the thought of being saved from a manipulative grip to fall into another.

She couldn’t help the thought that even being the queen of lies and manipulation, she was still being lied and manipulated.

And she couldn’t help the idea that this was some kind of weird plot to get rid of her. The Dark Lord knew that she had a human side within her; that was shown to him when she made the terrible mistake of talking with him about her concerns about Zelda so many years ago.

 

** _1961_ **

_The demoness was going to meet with Satan and talk with him about all this situation. She wasn’t sure about what to say and how the conversation would go on, and that chill passing through her spine and a feeling of uneasiness was telling her that all the events on that day would go from bad to terrible._

_Zelda was sleeping soundly next to her and she turned to look at the red-haired beauty. She looked so beautiful, so peaceful and the demoness couldn’t help the urge to pass her fingers through her hair and stay looking at her until she decided to wake up, but Lilith couldn’t. She needed to meet the Dark Lord and decide Zelda’s future. She knew it would be bad, she felt angry because she couldn’t do anything, just follow orders._

_“I’m sorry,”_ _Lilith whispered tiredly, placed a kiss on the redhead’s cheek and got up. That would be a long day._

_While she walked into the forest, she could feel the breeze that enveloped her and felt that chill passing through her spine again. She stopped, looked around to see if she was distant enough from civilization and drew a pentagram on the floor. She closed her eyes, concentrated all her energy into the circle and whispered the spell to summon The Dark Lord’s presence._

_She felt the energy getting heavier and heard a chuckle next to her but haven’t dared to look up. The Dark Lord caressed her cheek and she remained with her eyes shut._ _“I can smell your weakness and cowardness from Hell. Are you having second thoughts?”_

_“No, my Dark Lord.”_ _She looked up and dared to look at the distorted image of her master._ _“I just don’t see a point of what you told me to do.”_

_“That’s where you are wrong, my dear Lilith. I am the one to see the points of what I tell you to do.”_ _He got closer to her and she was struggling to maintain her gaze because the energy was getting even heavier._ _“You are my foot soldier, the only thing you have to do is obey and don’t question anything.”_

_“But, my Dark Lord-“_

_“I know all your wishes and I can make them happen. You know what I am talking about, don’t you?”_ _He whispered in her ear and she imagined herself being the Queen of Hell, not having to do any dirty works and sending her children to do it._ _“But it seems I won't have to make anything happen because suddenly you decided to turn into some kind of rebel. You dared to question your Dark Lord.”_ _He was still close and the tone of his voice was dangerously calm._ _“You don’t want to be banished from Hell, do you?”_

_“No!”_ _She said with urgency and he smiled. It made her feel sick but she pushed this sickness aside. She wasn’t supposed to feel those kinds of things towards her Master._ _“I am not questioning anything, my Lord.”_

_“Then, what are you doing here?”_ _She knew he was impatient and knew she needed to stand up for herself. She thought about what she wanted and let her mind wander between protecting Zelda and facing the consequences of it or having all her dreams fulfilled. She needed to sacrifice one thing to have another._ _“Why are you wasting your energy here, dear Lilith?”_ _He said these words with such venom in his voice that she flinched._ _“Go back to your sweet Zelda and ask her to marry you, when she tells you the truth about her identity, you leave her. Is that so difficult for you?”_ _He mocked and started to laugh, making her feel the weakest creature in the world. He said every word as if he was whispering how she wasn’t Queen material for him._ _“I never pictured you being so weak. Your cowardness makes me feel sick.”_

_“I’m not fucking weak!”_ _She yelled at nothing because he was not there anymore. Angry tears were starting to spill and she sighed tiredly, covered her face with her hands and screamed. She sat down and sighed, her throat sore and her eyes red. Yes, maybe she was weak after all._

 

_***_

 

If almost a year was enough to make Lilith feel her human side for at least some moments, you can guess what four years did to her. Should be only a surprise if she hasn’t gotten more involved than she was supposed to. But she did, so not even The Dark Lord was surprised.

Even some of her acts that were literally acted, based on the thought of how she could _manipulate_ people around her, were stopping to be just acting and becoming more genuine.

Sabrina was growing up so fast. After she started to walk by herself, nothing stopped her. Zelda had to enchant every single part of the house so anything bad didn’t happen to Sabrina and every potion that Hilda did, had a special place in the kitchen that was very difficult for the little blonde do reach. And her part as Mary was far from being over because she was considered family now and every day something that was resemblant to fondness was growing on her. And it wasn’t only towards Sabrina, it was towards every member of the Spellman family. That would be something good if she doesn’t pay very much thought to it.

Hilda still was a very good friend. They would always talk about potions and enchantments. About how was for her to live and work with mortals. And Lilith always had a new complaint about Principal Russell every day because he was really a poor excuse of a man. The urge of killing him and feasting on his flesh was always appetizing. Ambrose was still an antisocial man but he had his moments, like last Solstice, when he gave her a magical sewing machine that made her exclusive dresses each day.

Zelda was still her sweet Zelda, but with layers and layers of coldness and passive-aggressiveness that wasn’t there before. She always asked herself what would have happened if she had chosen Zelda over her loyalty to the Dark Lord and felt a strange feeling of sadness hit her every time. Little did she know that this strange feeling was the same she always felt when she was thinking things she shouldn’t about the Dark Lord. The only moments Lilith could actually see the sweet in Zelda, was when she was with Sabrina. Zelda saved her softness for Sabrina and Sabrina only because her snark comments were targeted to the rest of the family. And Sabrina, the little girl that always was there to greet her and give her a big hug when she appeared on the Spellman’s home. She was even called “Auntie Mary” and it made her melt every time. Not being the target of hatred by at least one creature she was raising felt actually good because even though her children respected her, they hated her with all their corrupted souls.

A couple of days before Sabrina’s 4th birthday, she had a day off, so she decided to skip breakfast and go visit Sabrina only in the afternoon time. When she knocked on the door one time, a slightly disheveled Zelda opened the door.

“Oh, it’s you.” She whispered. Zelda looked a little bit surprised but didn’t show any bigger reaction, she looked at her sides and grabbed Mary’s wrists to pull her inside the house.

“What are you doing?” She asked, confused. Zelda just demanded her to shush and she arched her eyebrow at her, the redhead rolled her eyes and found a place to hide. They were very close and the demoness could feel the tension building between them, but Zelda didn’t look affected at all, so she decided to just ignore it and act like she wasn’t feeling anything.

“Sabrina is making me play hide-and-seek with her,” Zelda whispered to her and the brunette started to laugh by the absurdness of what she just heard, but Zelda covered her mouth with her hand. “Stop. I really can’t say no when she pulls off that puppy eyes of her.” Zelda rolls her eyes and Mary feels the urge to start laughing again but her mouth is still covered.

“Aunties, what are you two doing here?” Sabrina shows up out of nowhere and glares at them with her arms crossed over her chest. Zelda realizes where her hand is and her eyes go wide, she pulls off her hand and blushes angrily, straightening her posture and feeling very self-conscious, what makes Mary smirk to herself.

“Your Aunt asked me if I wanted to play with you both, I guess you just found us!” Mary smiles widely and lowers herself to be at the same height as Sabrina and open her arms, allowing the little one to come closer to her and give her a hug, which she definitely does.

The demoness feels something warm on her chest while she hugs the little one. The smile doesn’t leave her face and she gets Sabrina up to hold her. Zelda just stares at them trying to hide her smile because she was softening at the sight and Ambrose enters the room to see them like that and crosses his arms over his chest smirking to himself because he knew since the beginning that Sabrina would bring the two closer. And she was doing exactly that.

 

**_1961_ **

_Yes, she did what the Dark Lord told her to do._

_After a good couple of hours sitting on the floor and thinking about her latest choices, Lilith finally got up, used magic on herself to look presentable, and made her way to the center of the town where she would buy the prettiest ring to Zelda. She would propose to her and break her heart, just like the Dark Lord said. It would be easy, she told herself, it was just another heartbreak she would cause._

_“Ok,”_ _She sighed. While buying the ring, she had convinced herself that she was doing the right thing for Zelda and for herself. She convinced herself that she was tired of Beatrice’s body and needed to get rid of it soon. She convinced herself that Zelda deserves something better, she needed to break the redhead’s heart because she wasn’t capable of loving and she couldn’t choose her. She convinced herself that her Lord would finally give her everything she always deserved._ _“Let’s do this.”_

_She entered the room they were sharing at the Hotel and the sight took her breath away. Zelda was with her long hair untied, falling like ocean waves; the beauty was dancing by herself the song they once danced together, humming the words and with her eyes closed, because she was feeling all the emotions the song was bringing to her. Lilith just stood there, smiling weakly and memorizing every inch of the woman in front of her. When Zelda realized her presence there, she opened her eyes and smiled widely at her lover, going at her direction and holding her hand, trying to remake the exact same moment and bring the exact same feelings Lilith was trying to push; the worse was, her goal was succeeded. They stood there, slow dancing, one eager to continue and one eager to stop._

_When Zelda reached for her mouth, she stopped her and got out from their embrace. The red-haired beauty looked at her with confusion but her visage changed when the blonde got down on one knee._ _“Zelda Phiona Spellman, will you give me the honor to be your wife?”_

_As expected, her reaction wasn’t that good. Zelda gave one step back and her expression was from confused to guilty. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, the demoness could already feel what she was going to say. That was in the Dark Lord plan, after all._

_“Beatrice. I need to tell you something.”_ _She looked apprehensive and the blonde just got up, waiting for what she was going to say._ _“As we talked so many times, there are so many kinds of people in this world, so many kinds of religions and I know I have to keep in mind that your mind is so open for so many things, but I’m so preoccupied about your reaction about this-”_

_“You’re starting to make no sense, dear.”_ _She laughed softly and Zelda smiled nervously to her._ _“Just tell me what you have to say.”_

_“I am a witch.”_ _Lilith starts to laugh as if Zelda’s statement was something very absurd._ _“I’m telling the truth, Beatrice!”_

_“This is absurd.”_ _She crosses her arms over her chest and sighs._ _“If you wanted to get rid of me, you didn’t need to make up such an absurd lie.”_

_“I’m not lying. Look.”_ _With just one movement of her hand, Zelda’s outfit changed and Lilith had to gasp as if she’d never done that before. Like she was horrified with the idea of someone having magical powers._ _“You still want to marry me?”_ _Zelda asked with such a small voice, it was like she was lowering herself, and Lilith couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. She wanted to say that yes, she wanted to marry her, but that was just impossible while the conversation with Satan played on her mind over and over._

_“I can’t marry such an unholy creature.”_ _Unholy was hardly an insult, but she needed to act mortal, so she said the word with venom, the same tone the Dark Lord used with her earlier and left with hurry because she didn’t want to see the damage she had done on her Sweet Zelda._

_She had broken a lot of hearts over the years, but this was the only one that pained her to do so._

 

_***_

 

On the night before her birthday, Sabrina demanded that Mary, the only aunt that never had done it, was the one to tell her stories before her sleep. It was a quite funny scene, actually. They were all gathered after dinner and in the exact same moment Mary looked at her watch and opened her mouth to say that was very late, Sabrina walked up to her, yawned and looked at her with her puppy eyes.

“Auntie Mary, you never read stories to me in bed. Why?” The little blonde asked at her as if she was very upset about that fact and the brunette felt trapped. She looked at Hilda, who was smirking to herself and then looked at Zelda, who was pretending to drink her whiskey to hide her own smirk.

“Well, Sabrina,” She started to think of some good excuse to give to Sabrina because the little girl was just too smart for her own liking. “I always have to leave early because my house is very far and never got the chance to read to you. Maybe one day, huh?” She explained softly but the little girl just started to giggle.

“Auntie, you silly! You’re a witch, you can just “poof” to your house.” She said like it was something very obvious and started to laugh. That made everyone laugh with her, even Zelda, who was impressed by her niece’s answer. Mary just shook her head and started to tickle Sabrina’s belly, which made the little girl laugh even more.

“You smart little girl, I never thought of “poofing” to my house.” She smiled and stopped tickling Sabrina, who grabbed her wrist and started to pull her to her bedroom, smiling triumphantly. She looked back to get some help, but what she saw was three people smirking at her as if they had won some kind of game and she was the only one losing.

And she discovered that in fact, she had lost something. Her precious time. Sabrina, instead of sleeping with just one book, made her read a couple of them and was always tricking her, promising that the one she was currently reading would be the last one but never was. The demoness was starting to get really impatient until she had an idea.

She conjured the Unholy Bible and started to read it since the beginning.

When she got to page 2, Sabrina was already yawning and covering herself with her blanket. Mary smiled, closed the Unholy Bible and left in the pile of books next to Sabrina’s bed, she got up and was starting to leave when Sabrina called her back. “Auntie, aren’t you forgetting something?” She looked at her serious face and couldn't tell anything she was forgetting to do. “A good night's kiss, silly!” Sabrina smiled widely and Mary rolled her eyes but couldn’t help it and smiled too. She got closer to the girl and sat down on her bed, Sabrina looked expectantly at her.

“Good night, my favorite smart girl.” She kissed the blonde’s forehead and Sabrina rolled her eyes.

“I’m the only smart girl you know, Auntie.” That wasn’t true, because she was a teacher, and she knew plenty of smart girls but decided to keep her mouth shut. Sabrina yawned again and before she drifted off to sleep, she whispered something that made her Unholy Godmother freeze. “I love you, Auntie Mary.”

It wasn’t some kind of euphemism when said that the demoness froze. She literally sat there, frozen, with no words nor reaction at all because she was still processing what she heard. One side of her was just melting and softening, wanting so desperately to say it back but the other side was freaking out. When she processed completely what she heard, she looked at Sabrina, checked if she was really asleep and got out of her bedroom.

She managed to say goodbye casually to the Spellmans and seconds before actually poofing to her house, she decided that she was going to pretend the moment with Sabrina never happened.

 

***

 

On Sabrina’s birthday morning, there she was again, having breakfast with the Spellmans. It was like a normal day, Zelda sat back on her chair and started reading her newspaper while smoking a cigarette, Hilda was doing all the food while chatting excitedly with Ambrose who was answering her normally, not sharing the same mood his aunt had every morning. And Mary, well, she was, like every morning, in her chair with her arms crossed paying attention to Hilda’s conversation and actually being a part of it, sometimes eyeing Zelda which was something everybody pretended to not notice.

The only thing strange was Sabrina, who appeared in the kitchen with a visible bad mood and didn’t talk with anybody. Which was the strangest thing, because she always would mutter a ‘good morning, family.’ even when she was in a bad mood. The little girl sat back on her chair with no posture and crossed her arms angrily. Everyone stopped what they were doing to look at Sabrina, then exchanged looks with each other.

Zelda glared at Mary and when she glared back, the redhead half closed her eyes. “What have you done?” She pointed at the brunette, who just rolled her eyes.

“Everything that happens is my fault. Anything new here.” She shook her head and Zelda arched her eyebrow.

“What are you implying?”

Ambrose and Hilda exchanged looks and looked at them both, fighting for no reason, and rolled eyes. If they let Zelda and Mary continue with this discussion, they would discuss anything all day long. Ambrose was the first one to intervene. “Hey, married couple over there, can we just stop and pay attention to Sabrina?” That made them divert their attention from themselves to him and look at him with outrage written all over their faces. He kneeled in front of the pouting girl in front of him. “What happened, cous? It’s your birthday!” He said with a sweet voice and excited voice, trying to make Sabrina talk, but she just shook her head and didn’t say anything. Before he tried again, someone knocked on the door.

Mary and Zelda got up at the same moment and glared at each other, but the brunette didn’t give Zelda the chance to go answer the door. When she answered it, she had to give the fakest smile she’d ever given.

“Good Morning, Father Blackwood.” She said with a pleasant tone of voice like she always used when she talked to men. “What the fuck are you doing here?” She whispered angrily, making sure no Spellman had listened to her and Faustus laughed.

“Aren’t you tired of playing home, Lilith?” He teased her with a wicked smile and she rolled her eyes and fought the urge to murder him. She let him in and led him into the kitchen, where everyone was, minus Sabrina, who took advantage of her relatives' distraction and ran to her room.  

“Look who’s here: Father Blackwood! What a pleasant surprise, huh?” She said with faux excitement and everyone looked at him with surprise, but Zelda was delighted with his presence. Devoted to the church the way she was, was always a pleasant surprise when members with a high position visited the Spellman home.

“Well, I heard it’s Sabrina’s birthday and came here to see how is everything doing.” He said, gesticulating and the demoness couldn’t help to look at Zelda, who was paying all her attention to him. “And discuss some things about her education with the family’s matriarch.”

She knew that someday he would appear and try to get in the way of what she was doing but she didn’t expect it to be so soon. “That would be me, Father.” Zelda got up and he started to ask questions about Sabrina while walking to the living room and everyone just stared the two of them. The first thing that came into Lilith’s mind was that he shouldn’t talk with Zelda this close if he was just wanting to discuss Sabrina’s education and she sighed.

“If I had a list of men that I hate most, he would be the first one” She talked to herself, forgetting that Hilda and Ambrose were still in the same room as her. “Or a list of men I would be happy to murder.”

“Mary, I know his presence is not that pleasant, but you are not supposed to hate a high-priest, even if you’re excommunicated,” Ambrose said and arched his eyebrows, the only reaction that he got was a laugh from Mary.

“He’s a poor excuse of a Priest, that’s what he is.” She groaned and sat on her chair again, Hilda walked up to her and put a hand on her shoulder.

“Do you actually hate him that much or your just jealous that he got all Zelda’s attention?” Hilda asked sweetly and Mary looked at her with a surprised expression but in the same minute she changed it and scoffed.

“Don’t try to be a smartass, Hilda. It doesn’t suit you.”

The real answer to that question would be both. She hated Faustus Blackwood because he was a misogynistic man that thought he was superior to any woman that ever existed and also thought the power given to him by the Dark Lord was real power. But, yes, she was kind of jealous of him for getting all Zelda’s attention, however, she was too stubborn to admit that.

“I am actually… late.” She wasn’t, but she wanted to end this conversation so badly and that was a good excuse, so she got up again and waved goodbye at them.

“Who’s being a smartass now?” Hilda yelled when Mary was almost getting to the living room and she laughed, startling Faustus and Zelda, but she disregarded their presence and went upstairs to talk to Sabrina.

The door was open and she reluctantly knocked on it, but Sabrina just pretended she hadn’t seen her and sank her head in the pillow. She cursed herself, she shouldn’t be feeling kind of bad by Sabrina’s lack of good mood on her birthday, but she was and wanted to discover what was happening, so she walked to the girl’s bed and sat down, like the night before.

“Sabrina, you know you can always talk to me when something is bothering you, don't you?” She said softly and the girl turned to look at her, with a distrustful expression. “You should be excited. It’s your birthday, after all.”

“Why are you here if you don’t love me?”

The question hit her like a punch in the stomach. Sabrina looked like she was about to cry and the demoness didn't know if it was lying to say that she actually loved her. She looked at the girl, silent, for what looked like hours. She was a demoness, she wasn’t supposed to love, but the truth was, she had her human side. She felt. And what she felt for Sabrina was love, fondness. How could she not love the little girl that brightened her days for the last 4 years?

“Sabrina, look at me.” She asked and Sabrina looked at her with her eyes full of tears. “Is that because of yesterday?” The little blonde girl in front of her nodded and one tear rolled on her cheek, Mary gently reached to dry it and sighed. “I love you, so very much. Don’t ever doubt that.”

Sabrina wasn’t convinced, “Why you did not say it back to me last night?” She sat on the bed and hugged her legs, then glared at her Unholy Godmother with half-closed eyes, the same way Zelda did.

“You were sleeping, I wanted to tell you when you’re awake.” She lied and the girl seemed to forget the reason she was mad at Mary and started to giggle.

“I was pretending to sleep, silly!”


	5. V

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello it's me again

** _1961_ **

_She was from The Church of the Night since she was born, things were called “Unholy” so many times in her house that, at this point, Zelda was familiarized with this word. And yet, she was feeling offended._

_What happened played so many times in her head, and yet, she was feeling like it truly didn’t happen; like it was just something her head had imagined all along. She was still feeling that strange feeling of hope, wondering if Beatrice would appear again and pretend as nothing happened. She was wondering if she would come and say that she judged her wrongly and say that she’s sorry; wondering if she would ever see her again._

_The state of disbelief lasted longer than it should ─ she truly couldn’t stop wondering. Wondering what would’ve happened if she had kept this secret any longer. If she was going to be excommunicated or not. There was no happy ending to this._

_Angry tears were falling and she just sat on the floor, hugging her legs, feeling ashamed to admit that she was weak and had fallen for a damned mortal._

_Now she realized the amount of weight this situation has. Since she was a little girl, her mother, Lydia, warned her that falling in love with mortals would lead to two things: excommunication and death. She didn't tell anything about broken hearts. And while Zelda’s heart was broken into a million pieces and tears she couldn't stop was falling in her face, she remembered what her sister Vesta said to her about trust, what she had said about the way she was acting about Beatrice._

_”You are acting so out-of-character, Zelda.”_

_That was a true statement. And the truth to what her sister had said was what made her angrier. She had given so much of herself into this relationship that she had forgotten what her mother had said to her; what the Church of the Night had taught her. Mortals couldn't love witches because they murdered them._

_She got up and looked herself in the mirror. Her hair was messy and she particularly didn’t like how long it was. She had stopped cutting it when she met Beatrice because the blonde liked to braid it. Sometimes she would braid it beautifully and they would go out, walk in the streets and Beatrice picked flowers to put on her hair._

_With all those gestures, little ones that meant a number of things, she thought that their love could overcome everything. Even the fact that she was a witch. Even the fact that the Dark Lord and the Church forbid that kind of relationship._

_In the end, she just discovered that she was naïve to have hope in those kinds of things; she just discovered that no one of her kind should trust mortals because they break you and tear you into pieces until there’s nothing to tell the story._

_That’s what Beatrice did to her._

_She realized that their song was still playing on the background and started to cry again. She covered her face in her hands and sobbed because she didn’t know how she was supposed to feel. She was angry, sad, and the feel of disbelief was still there; the only thing left for her was her own tears._

_Zelda was so immersed in her own pain that she didn’t see the magic mirror shining right next to her, but when her sister Vesta appeared next to her through astral projection, she jumped in surprise._

_“What happened, sis?”_ _Vesta tried to reach her, forgetting for a moment that she was projecting. Zelda covered her face with her hands again, remaining silent and hoping the psychopomps would arrive soon to scare her sister off._ _“Talk to me, Zelda. Please.”_ _Vesta pleaded_ _._ _The older Spellman was genuinely concerned about her sister and sighed when didn’t get any answers and the birds were starting to arrive._

 _“What are you doing here?”_ _She sighed when she heard the sound of her own voice. She sounded so broke. She felt like that but she didn’t want to show it. Well, too late._

 _“You haven’t answered our calls, so I came here.”_ _She shrugged and said like it was so simple and Zelda rolled her eyes at her sister. More psychopomps were arriving and Vesta looked at them, a little concerned but she still had a little time._ _“What happened? Tell me. We are sisters, you know I’m always here for you.”_ _Zelda looked down and took a deep breath. Saying things out loud always made them more real, the redhead just didn’t know if it was a good or a bad thing._

 _“I told her.”_ _She says and Vesta makes a confused face._ _“About being a witch. She left.”_

_For a moment, a brief one, Vesta looked devastated about the news. The truth was, she really was. She didn’t like the idea of being in love with a mortal but knew that she never saw her sister so happy before. All the things Zelda told about Beatrice to her and Edward, they really thought that the two of them would overcome things. But the older Spellman wouldn’t show this, so the impassive expression was what she showed to her younger sister._

_“Oh, Zelda…”_ _She tried to reach her sister again and when she looked behind her shoulder, she saw a really lot of psychopomps, so she tried to make this quick._ _“I know broken hearts may seem hard, but sometimes your home is really the place where you’ll get to heal. I don’t have much time right now. Come back to Greendale, please.”_

 _“With what face I’ll look at Mama?”_ _Vesta rolled her eyes and groaned. Her sister was always too stubborn._

 _“With the face you have.”_ _She said like her sister was stupid and Zelda suppressed a laugh._ _“Always know that you have a shoulder to cry in me.”_ _She said quickly and left the astral plane before she couldn’t leave it anymore._

 

***

 

No matter what she said to Mr. Russell, he wouldn’t leave her alone. Living four years pretending to be a teacher on a high school had her learning a number of things about society in general. She wasn't ingenuous to think that everything had changed since she left Adam and the false god on Garden of Eden but she thought that with many years of evolution, society would be a lot better. But living the best of both worlds, she got to the conclusion that toxic puritanical masculinity was still a problem, no matter if the man in question was a mortal or not.

Thinking about that highly disturbed her because she just wanted to change everything ─ Church of Night and Hell included. Because she was daring herself to think about everything the Dark Lord did to her throughout the years.

A knock on the door pulled her out from her thoughts and she rolled her eyes, already guessing who was. She allowed him to come in, attempting a new smile and trying to be nice to him, even though he was always appearing out of nowhere and trying to get something out of her for being her boss.

“Good Morning, Ms. Wardwell.” He tried to give her a charming smile that made her feel the urge to vomit and sat down in front of her. “Every time I talk to you, you always seem so stressed. May I ask why?” He asked her with a faux expression of concern.

She arched her eyebrows. What kind of nonsense was that? She always tried to be nice to him to prevent herself from being fired and now he was coming with a story like that? “Why, Mr. Russell, I’m not stressed, quite the opposite.” He tried to give her an assuring smile and awkwardly grabbed her hand.

“Seems like you live your whole life to be a teacher. You should relax sometimes, you know?” He tried to give a hand massage on her, which wasn’t helping at all. It just made the situation even more strange. And the rage that was built inside her over the years was growing even faster.

“What exactly are you implying?” She pretended she was confused about his intentions and pulled her hands off from his hold. He looked briefly embarrassed about the inappropriate touch but in seconds the sickly charming smile was back.

“What I’m saying is, you should go out, sometimes go on dates. Live, you know?” If he was thinking he was being unobtrusive about his intentions, he was wrong. She was tired of him and the plan to kill him and make it seem like he had run away to another state was wandering her mind.

“Are you asking me for a date, Mr. Russell? Do you think this is appropriate?” He looked like he was thinking about it and she was curious to know what he was thinking but decided to not use her powers on him.

“Of course it is! I’m the Principal, I tell the rules.” Principal Russell looked very proud of it but she was just disgusted, so she smiled.

“Ok,” His smile grew bigger, he was finally getting what he wanted since the beginning and her smile grew bigger as well because she was going to get a full course meal this night. “You can meet me at eight at my house. I’ll send you the address.” She winked and he gets out feeling like he had won the lottery, except he hadn’t.

During one of her breaks, she sent an enchanted piece of paper to him. To him, it just looked like a normal piece of paper with her address written in it, but for everyone else, was a letter saying those exact words with his handwriting:

_“I am going to find who I really am. Don’t look for me, because when you find this letter, I’ll already be far away from your shitty town. Goodbye, Greendale.”_

She also enchanted it to fly back to his table after the witching hour, just in case. Her plan was done and everything was just going smoothly for her.

 

** _1961_ **

_When Lilith turned her back to the building Zelda was and teleported herself to the woods again, she felt pain. She felt like she had done the biggest mistake of her eternal life_ ─ not once she had thought so much before making a decision, and even after everything was said and done, she felt. She felt a lot of things but couldn’t name them; she felt wrong. ─ _how could she not?_

_After overthinking a thousand times about the conversation she had with Satan before praying for him to call her back because her mission was accomplished, she decided something._

_The Dark Lord didn’t give a point without a knot, and she suddenly felt deep inside her that he would, someday, use Zelda against her. And she wasn’t going to let him do that. She convinced herself that she was going to perform a protection spell in Zelda for selfish reasons, so the Dark Lord wouldn’t have success when he decides to go against her_ ─ _deep inside she knew the truth wasn’t that one she forced herself to believe so vehemently in._

_When Zelda was asleep, she took advantage of it and entered her dream in the form of Beatrice._

_On Zelda’s dream, she was wandering alone on the woods, the air was cold and the red-haired beauty looked like she was very lost until she spotted the demoness with the blonde’s form and smiled. A sad smile._

_“Somehow, I knew that you would be here.”_ _Zelda sighs and Lilith lowers her head, avoiding her ex-lover’s gaze._ _“We have unfinished business, don’t we?”_ _The redhead says, her voice cracking and staring hard at her, waiting for something._

 _“We do.”_ _She gathers her courage and stares back at Zelda, looking inside her green eyes shining more than the moonlight. Her sweet Zelda; not hers anymore. She walks slowly in her direction, every step closer made everything more painful for both of them._ _“You will not remember this in the morning, but I’m sorry. So sorry.”_ _She whispers and holds Zelda’s hand and gets even closer, so close their breaths mingle._

 _“You should be. I thought… thought you loved me.”_ _Lilith is so close that she can see that Zelda's eyes are shining, not with the moonlight, but with the tears she’s refusing to release._

 _“That’s why you can’t trust no bitch.”_ _Lilith gives a humorless chuckle and Zelda lowers her head, feeling ashamed of herself. The demoness sighs and holds her chin, making the redhead look at her again._

_They keep it like that. Both staring at each other, in silence. Then, Zelda pulls Lilith closer, not for a kiss; but for something even more intimate._

_Zelda hugs her._

_Not because she had forgiven her ex-lover, that was not the case. It was because she knew that this would be the last time._

_It took Lilith by surprise. She never expected this action from the red-haired beauty and remained stiffen for a good couple of seconds until she sighed and melted into the hug. Nobody was watching them and she would make sure that Zelda had forgotten all about that dream in the morning. She took advantage of the moment to murmur the words of the protection spell, and when she was done, she just broke their embrace and kissed Zelda for the last time before she could leave her for good._

_She turned back and started to walk into the woods again, leaving Zelda standing there, just staring at her back. She murmured the words of the forgetting spell and allowed Zelda to wake up._

_All the things she needed to do on Earth were done. Now was time to come back to Hell._

 

_***_

 

For four years, Hilda Spellman never felt really distrustful towards Mary Wardwell. It was true that she never really trusted her fully but never distrusted her entirely. And now, she was.

Well, Mary had become her friend over the years, they had many conversations about the topics they liked most, like potions, spells, and everything that involved witchcraft. Hilda liked Mary’s presence since the beginning and throughout the years, she was liking her even more, because the brunette was a really great friend.

But now she was realizing things that she hadn’t seen before.

Something about her aura always seemed a bit off, she was really imposing and sometimes she felt almost like a satanic presence in their room. Not that was really apparent, Zelda and Ambrose weren’t the ones to realize those kinds of things easily because they didn’t evolve with those kinds of powers and with Mary it was even more difficult to do so because when Sabrina entered the room, everything shady about her dissipated and flew with the air. Hilda is a witch with physic powers, she was supposed to perceive those things meters away from her, but with Mary, she just decided to disregard it and question herself about that when the other decided to be really shady and give reasons for her to do so.

The funny thing was, Hilda really had lied to herself when she thought that because Mary didn’t do anything and yet, she was there, thinking about some way to discover what the woman was really up to.

And everything started when Ambrose came up to her and started a strange conversation. “Auntie, you remember the day Mary came into our house to tell that story about Edward?”

She stopped reading the book she was reading and looked at him. Ambrose had his questioning eyes staring at her and she arched an eyebrow. “Of course I remember, darling. There’s something you need to know?”

“Oh, no.” He was still staring at her with a question in his eyes, somehow trying to analyze her and she was starting to get uncomfortable, but she stared back until he finished what she had to say. “I just… It’s a silly question, nevermind.”

She rolled her eyes, “Stop making me curious. Just say it already!” She huffed, already getting impatient and he sighed.

“You started to trust her at the time because you used your powers in her to verify what she was saying or just for the sake of disagreeing with Auntie Zee?”

Oh.

Looking from the outside, with Hilda being the light-hearted of the family, the extrovert and kind one, some may say that there’s no possibility of some of her actions being done just for the sake of pissing off her sister. But yes, some of them were, because Hilda still had Spellman as her last name, and the Spellman family only had stubborn people in it.

And that question was a punch on Hilda’s stomach.

She knew, deep inside, that when Mary Wardwell appeared suddenly in their lives, right after Edward’s death, claiming she was Sabrina’s Unholy Godmother because Edward had sent her there, Zelda had every right to be suspicious and she was supposed to be too, but instead, she was welcoming to the woman, trusting her and making her feel like she was at home. And that was certainly for the sake of disagreeing with Zelda.

Instead of being truthful and saying the truth to her nephew, she just scoffed his question and said, “Ambrose, my dear, do I need to tell you about the importance of trusting people? You don’t need to be skeptical all the time like Zelds, darling.”

He just nodded, without saying anything and left her alone with her book. Instead of starting to read her book again, Hilda just started to question every decision she ever made in her whole life.

Then she decided that she was going to discover for herself and with a little help of Ambrose something about Mary Wardwell. First, it was very difficult, because the more she started to pay real attention to the woman who was supposed to be just her friend and Sabrina’s Unholy Godmother, more questions she had about her. The first one was why she never had entered her mind unintentionally.

Hilda had an annoying habit of entering peoples heads, reading their minds for some seconds before realizing what she had done and stopped it. She had done it with many mortals and even with the most powerful witches of their Coven, and the best part was, they never realized what she was doing, so when she tried it intentionally, she knew she wasn’t going to be caught. And she never remembered doing so with Mary.

So, at one dinner, she just tried to read her mind casually, without causing any harm, just to see if it would have some kind of reaction.

It had.

They sat on the table and began to eat, and it was the perfect timing for Hilda because the brunette was distracted. When she tried, it was like a barrier was pushing her magic back quite aggressively and felt Mary’s gaze directed at her. She stopped, pretending it was unintentional and looked at the brunette with an apologizing expression, Mary smiled kindly and didn’t say a word.

The next day Mary said she could help her with those accidents and Hilda apologized to her and accepted her offer.

The perfect moment showed itself at another dinner. After dinner, Mary would always stay with them a little while because of Sabrina, but this day she left in a hurry, seeming to be too excited for something. Which made Zelda assume things and lock herself in their bedroom. Hilda just smiled, feeling like it was the right moment to dig up a little more.

She asked for Ambrose to look out for Sabrina and tuck her to sleep that night and he arched his eyebrow to her. “What are you up to, Auntie?”

“I’m just going to have a nice walk in the woods, dear. Nothing to worry about.” She lied and put on her coat because was a little cold outside.

“You are going to spy on Mary, won’t you?” She tried to deny it but everyone knew that she was a really bad liar, so she just nodded.

“She’s up to something, and I’ll just discover it before anyone does.” She shrugged like what she was doing was something very common to do and Ambrose crossed his arms.

“Maybe she’s just going on a date, you know? You are going to ruin that for her?”

She scoffed at that, “Please, in Greendale all the nice ladies are either Christian or married, trust me, I know.” She knew that Mary wasn’t that interested in men, giving the big interest she had for Zelda. Ambrose started to laugh and Hilda took advantage of the moment to leave.

She started to walk into the woods and looked around, she realized she really didn’t know where Mary Wardwell lived and started to make a locator spell, and the woods started to show her the way she needed to go. When she arrived, she discovered that Mary Wardwell actually lived in a house isolated. It was the first strange thing she had found so far, but not the last.

She teleported herself inside the woman’s house and prayed to Satan she hadn’t sensed anything or made a protection spell around the house. And luckily, she gets inside the house safe and sound. She was trying to be silent so no one would notice her and considered entering the dinner’s room. She knew it was a bad idea, but she walked in the direction of the room anyway.

And she gasped at what she saw.

Mary had a dead body over the table and she was eating it. The gasp didn’t startle the woman, who seemed unmoved by Hilda’s presence. She just looked up, smiled a disdainful smile and talked with the tone of voice too soft. “Oh, you’re finally here. Wanna join me?”

“You certainly have some explaining to do.” The surprised woman said, motioning to the dead body and everything on the scenario. “You knew I was coming over?”

“Of course I did.” Mary rolled her eyes, and continued eating, seeming unbothered nevertheless. “I always believed you’d be the first of the Spellmans to discover me.” Hilda furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. She walked towards the table and Mary just stared at her.

“Who are you?” She demanded and the demoness, who she didn’t know was a demoness, laughed.

“You know me, actually.” She crossed her arms and smirked, enjoying the situation, but Hilda wasn’t finding anything funny about it. She rolled her eyes and they stared each other for a couple of minutes before Mary decides to speak up again. “Well, I’m just going to tell you the truth because you are no harm to me. Actually, I think we want the same thing: Sabrina on the right path. I’m Lilith, my darling Hilda.”

“Lilith? The Dawn of Doom, Mother of Demons, Satan’s favorite concubine, Dark Lard’s foot-soldier, First Adam’s wife?” Hilda asks, incredulous and Mary rolls her eyes.

“Yes, Hilda. That one. Don’t make me regret it and put a forgetting spell on you.” She says disdainful and motions at the food on the table. “But really, wanna join me?”

“Oh, no.” Hilda gives some steps back, not deciding if she’s afraid, mesmerized or just normal. She had so many questions inside her head and took some courage to sit in front of the demoness and stare at her. “I’m really impressed to see how you managed to live with us for far many time before one of us discovered something.”

“You can’t tell a soul.” That makes Hilda pout a little because her mouth was like a grave. An open one.

“Not even Ambrose?” Mary sighed and rolled her eyes again, the urge of just making Hilda forget everything building inside her.

“Ok, you can tell Ambrose. But he needs to swear he’s not going to tell a soul. I can be familiarized with your family, but I’m still a demon and I can hurt all of you.” She threatened and Hilda just smiled too big for the demoness liking and crossed her arms over her chest.

“You like us!” She laughed and Mary rolled her eyes for the third time to stop herself from doing anything against Hilda because that wasn’t part of her plan and she knew that Ambrose and Hilda were harmless to her.

“I don’t.” She ignored Hilda’s happiness and finished her meal, making some magic to clean up the mess and saving some parts for her familiar, Stolas.

“I never thought demons were capable of feelings. Seems like you are.” Hilda started rambling about it and the demoness huffed. The things she had to endure. She suppressed a smile over Hilda’s excitement because she wasn’t lying but the brunette had to wear the cold bitch mask.

“I don’t think I’m only a demon, Hilda.” She said casually and stood up and started to walk to the living room, Hilda at her feet. “It’s much more complicated than that.” She sighed. “And I’m actually glad that you’re treating me normally because Zelda can’t know any of this.”

“I won’t tell her. But you can be aware that if you ─ by any chance ─ even think of hurting Sabrina, I will join forces with my family to destroy you. You know, powerful witches can overcome one single demon, don’t you think?” She asks with cynicism and something dark in her eyes, but in a matter of seconds, her expression changes and she smiles like she just had given the brunette her new recipe of a new potion. “I’m very glad to discover that you actually enjoy being a part of our family.” She winks at Mary and laughs.

“Now you know who I am, what I’m here for, and that I don’t hate being a part of your family or mean any harm to it. Seems like you’re pretty happy about it.” She said quizzically and Hilda shook her head.

“Oh no, I’m terrified. Just trying to act normal.” That made the demoness arch her eyebrows with an unspoken ‘yes, you were succeeding at that before you threatened me’, and Hilda didn’t know if she was feeling actually threatened or not.  
  
Until she spoke up, softly, “As you should be."


	6. VI

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> for the ones who liked vesta (who is played by patricia clarkson and her only) on the preview chapter, this one is for you
> 
> and i want to thank the girl who did the lilith's devil in disguise edit on tumblr, you're a genius who gave me a brilliant idea!

Ambrose could be considered the normal one on the family — if we don’t count the time he tried to blow up the Vatican. But that’s just water under the bridge.

After that event, he now tried to stay far away from everything that could make his sentence even longer. Or put him in serious danger. Which it wasn’t really a possibility, because, after all, he was in house arrest.

The night his aunt Hilda went after Mary to discover something about her, he put Sabrina to sleep and started to wait for her, sitting at the stairs in front of the door and reading a book. When she came back, in the middle of the night, eyes wide and chest rising, he knew something was really wrong about Mary Wardwell.

He got up and ran to his Aunt, who closed her eyes and touched tentatively her arm. “What happened, Auntie?” He whispered, knowing that if he talked louder, he would startle her.

She opened her eyes and stared him dead in the eye. “Lilith. Mary Wardwell. Same person. Or demon, whatever she is.” She says and the look on her face left no space for him to doubt what she was saying.

His eyes go wide, “Lilith? The first witch?” She nodded and he arched one eyebrow. This idea seemed like the most absurd thing in the world. Why would Lilith come and try to be part of their family? What does she want from them? He made a mental note to keep an eye on her actions, to analyze her and decide if they seem genuine.

“Yes. That one.” She walked to the direction of the stairs and sat there. “She said something about wanting Sabrina on the right path. Or whatever that means.”

“I’ve seen her with Sabrina, _that_ can’t be fake.” He points out, already sitting at her side and trying to understand something because all this situation was making him confused. “You think she’s been manipulating all of us all this time?” He asks, not so sure about what the answer would be.

“In the beginning? Yes. Now? I’m not so sure.” Is the answer Hilda gives and she sighs, not so sure about the decisions of her life anymore. Ambrose tries to reflect on the situation, trying to get some way out of it. Or maybe, test Lilith’s true intentions and the authenticity of her actions. So, he decided he would test Mary Wardwell’s limits. Yes, he could be the normal one on the family, but he was the kind of person that might lose his life, but never lost a single joke.

He was committed.

Every time she appeared on the Spellman house, Ambrose, at some moment, would crack a joke about demons or mention them. The first time, Lilith laughed awkwardly and gathered all of her goodwill to not kill him on the spot. After the millionth time, she just looked at him, deadly in the eyes, and when he realized that she was fighting the urge to kill him, he would smirk and she would roll her eyes.

One day, he went a little bit off-limits and taught little Sabrina to sing and dance the song Devil in Disguise by Elvis Presley.

The little one got super excited about what she had learned, so she went to the living room, where Hilda and Mary were having a nice chat and Zelda was reading, ignoring their presence.

“Aunties!” Sabrina appeared, more excited than ever and all three of them stopped what they were doing and looked at her. “I learned something!” The little girl announced and mentioned for her aunts to get up.

Once they’re up, she started to dance and sing Devil in Disguise.

Realizing what were the lyrics that Sabrina was singing, Hilda suppressed a laugh and looked at Mary Wardwell, concerned about what would be her reaction. She was with an impassive expression, but Hilda couldn’t miss the soft look in her eyes, one that was only reserved for Sabrina.

When Sabrina sang the “You’re the Devil in Disguise” part, pointing at her, and then doing a choreography like she was on the 50s, Lilith laughed in surprise, letting the little girl proud of herself. Ambrose smirked to himself because he realized Lilith would never harm Sabrina or their family in any way because she was too fond of them to do that — although she would never say that out loud.

Zelda was just oblivious to what was really happening, watching Sabrina’s little show and smiling because she was too cute.

When the little blonde was done, the first one to speak up was Lilith. “You are the most talented girl in the universe, Sabrina.” She said with her voice soft, lowering her body and opening her arms to Sabrina be able to run and hug her. It was their thing. They hugged for a good amount of time and Lilith would just break their embrace to hold her in her arms. Sabrina was getting big, soon enough Lilith wouldn’t be able to hold her anymore.

Lilith looked at her side, and there was Zelda. When Sabrina and her Unholy Godmother were interacting, she would always look at Sabrina and smile slightly and was very difficult to tell if she was always delighted to see the scene or she just found it cute. But now she wasn’t looking at Sabrina, she was looking at her.

The brunette suppressed her surprised expression and they just stood like that, facing each other. Those green, profound eyes, shining as bright as the stars in the sky, trying to tell her something ─ something she couldn’t quite put her finger on.

For a long time she found pitiful the way human beings yearned for proximity and warmth, and she, with her human skin, also suffered this exact same feeling of longingness. And many times, more than she can count, only a sweet look from the person who was as sweet could dampen the facade of her being a cold as a rock bitch she tried so hopelessly to wear.

And, being honest, if she tried to wear it one more time, it wouldn’t fit her anymore, even if she tried hard enough.

Their exchanging of looks was rudely interrupted by the sound of the telephone ringing and they tried hard to look at other things rather than each other. Zelda’s cheeks were flushed, and Mary tried to ignore and mask her own feelings pretending that nothing happened. That method never worked for her, but she did it anyway.

Ambrose was the one who went to pick it up but not before looking at Mary Wardwell and winking at her without anyone else noticing, and she stares at him with half-closed eyes.

After a few minutes, Ambrose is back, with a big smile on his face. “Mom called, she said she’s coming back to Greendale for a few weeks!” He claps his hands in front of his face and sounds delighted. Zelda and Hilda look equally delighted about the news and Mary just arch her eyebrow, waiting for an explanation.

“She’s coming alone, yes?” Zelda asks and Ambrose laughs, rolling his eyes.

“Yes, Auntie Zee. She’s not bringing family or a new companion. The last time she married, if I remember correctly, lasted five days.” He says, crossing his arms over his chest. “Maybe she could find one here in Greendale.” He looks briefly at Mary, only for the purpose to see what would be his aunt reaction.

Zelda’s face just contorts into something that looked like jealousy, but she immediately masks that with an expression of indifference. Hilda just snorts. “Vesta always says that divorce is chic, that why she’s doing it all the time.” She comments with Mary, who seems to agree with the divorce thing. “I bet you’ll like her.”

Zelda rolls her eyes. The last thing she needed at the moment was to see her sister and her nephew pretending they were Cupids.

“Cupid called, he wants his job back.” She finally speaks up, not trying the slightest effort to sound impassive or unbothered about the situation.

Hilda gives an amused smile and Mary starts to laugh so hard that she begins to tear up, “Someone has a sense of humor!” she exclaims and Sabrina starts to laugh along with her aunt even without knowing or understanding what was so funny.

 

***

 

The next day, when Lilith was walking on the woods towards the Spellman house, she saw a beautiful scene that would’ve made her tear up a little if she was a sensitive person.

A beautiful woman was walking towards the house, with her hands full of bags and she was looking almost too excited to be there. In a matter of seconds, Ambrose opened the door with a smile too big for his face and screamed “Mom!” The woman, who was a little taller than her smiled and dropped her bags on the floor to run towards her son and give him a tight hug. Lilith felt like an intruder, she didn't even remember the fact that Zelda and Hilda had another sister, but she pushed this feeling aside, ignoring it like every other feeling she dared to feel and began to walk again as if she hadn’t seen anything. Zelda and Hilda showed up moments later, both of them smiling and the woman hugged them both.

She let herself watch Zelda for a brief moment, the woman was looking less serious and her eyes were soft, the blonde woman puts a single arm around her shoulder and pulls her closer, whispering something that makes Zelda laugh freely. Lilith comes closer to make her presence known and suddenly, every pair of eyes are on her.

“Um. Good Morning, family.” She says awkwardly and attempts a smile. Everyone answers her back, and the blonde woman eyes her up and down with an amused smile.

“You must be Mary, I’m Vesta Spellman.” She says and extends her hand at the brunette, who takes it and shakes. “Very nice to meet you, Zelda talks a lot about you,” Vesta says with a very suggestive tone and suddenly the situation becomes less awkward to Mary and she smirks to herself.

“She does, huh?” Mary changes her gaze to look at Zelda, who is gazing very indignantly at her sister. They exchange looks and the brunette takes advantage of the situation to wink at her. “That’s very good to know.” She says, but her answer is directed at Zelda, instead of Vesta. Her silky voice and suggestive isn’t missed.

When everyone enters the house, Zelda and Vesta both stay on the living room, still on their embrace. “Seeing you in love again is something I didn’t know I needed to see.” Vesta tries to sound casual, but she fails on that and her sister huffs indignantly.

“I’m not in love, don’t be silly.” She tries to deny, but Vesta just looks knowingly at her and she sighs.

“I don’t believe that. First, I know you very well, and second… she’s all the compliments I can think of a woman. How could you not be in love with her? I mean,” She dramatically gestures at the kitchen. “Just look at her!”

Zelda rolls her eyes, “After all these years, taking care of Sophia with Mama on London, you’ve become just like her.” She says, trying her best to hide the smirk forming on her face and Vesta just looks at her with half-closed eyes.

“How’s that so?”, she asks with confusion, trying to sound offended, but failing it.

“You don’t have a shred of common sense.” She says, smiling, so her sister knows that she’s just joking. Vesta gets out of their embrace with faux-indignation and eyes Zelda up and down.

Then, she points a finger at her. “You need to learn how to respect older people, not-so-young lady.” She says and leaves dramatically towards the kitchen, where everyone is. But in the middle of the way, she turns back to face Zelda and says with a smirk on her face, “And for your information, I’ve been always like that.” She winks at her sister and leaves.

Zelda laughs freely for the second time in the morning. “Oh, I know that.” She says loud enough for her sister to be able to hear her. “She passed it to you through genetics!”

She knows that her sister, and possibly all her family has heard her when she hears Vesta’s laugh coming from the kitchen.

To mortals, it was considered very normal to have a lot of children; for witches, the scenario was completely different. Having magic babes required a lot of magic from the mother, and that's why many witches preferred having one, or two kids. Lydia Spellman was the rare case of a witch with many children.

First, Vesta came. She was a clever little girl who liked run around the house and make both Lydia and her mother run after her. Lydia didn't like the idea of marriage, so she just had a friendly relationship with Vesta’s father and he constantly came to visit her. But still, Vesta felt alone. She wanted to play with kids of her own age, so Lydia tried to befriend with the witches from their coven with kids of her daughter's age, but she didn't like any of them.

When Vesta’s magic to show itself and expand, the little girl learned by herself to conjure spirits of children and often played with them, until her mother found out.

Then, Zelda came. When Lydia told that she had a little baby growing inside her belly, Vesta felt suspicious. She also felt jealous, often thinking that the new baby in the house would steal her place in her mother's heart, but when she held Zelda for the first time, everything changed and Vesta swore that she would never let anything or anyone hurt her little sister.

Lydia didn't marry Zelda’s father either.

When Zelda was four, Hilda came. It wasn't easy for Zelda because she didn't dislike the idea of a new sister, but it doesn't mean that she liked it either. I can tell you that Zelda really loves Hilda, but she had a strange way of showing it, making her own sister confused by her actions. Soon after, came Edward. He was a charming little boy that stole the heart of everyone he talked to. He stole his sisters’ hearts too.

That was when Lydia took a break from having children. She raised them very well, all of them devoted to the Church of Night, but she often encouraged them to have their own opinions. Each one of them put their name on the Book of the Beasts, and she was proud. Vesta and Zelda traveled and met every country you can imagine, Hilda also traveled, but she was the one who stayed the most in Greendale and followed her mother when they moved to London. Then followed her again when she came back to Greendale.

Edward stayed on Greendale, studying to become the High Priest. He had an open mind, wanted to make big changes on the Church of Night. He had grown up to be a charming man, who talked easily about his ideas and convinced everyone around him about them. He made the Church think. Years after he graduated on the Academy of Unseen Arts, he became the High Priest and started his changes.

Sophia came almost in the same year that Ambrose came. They both were raised together in London by Lydia, Vesta, and Hilda. They studied together at the Academy, but Ambrose was a little more inclined to drama, and that was certainly proven by the day he tried to blow the Vatican, making him be house arrested in Greendale and the whole Spellman come back to the little town.

 

 _“You don’t have any friends? Because a real friend would have warned you.”_ _It’s clear by the tone of her voice that she’s very angry, not just because Ambrose had done something absurdly extreme that could cost his own life, but also because that was literally the first time she had to give him a lecture. His only reaction is to look down, staring at his own hands and feeling very ashamed of what he had done. Vesta rolls her eyes, sighing._ _“Ambrose, what were you thinking?”_ _She asks, lowering her voice this time._

_She was really confused about his actions. He was a beautiful young man, inside and out. Intelligent, who had his own opinions and often fought for them, but never showed signals of being an extremist. When she was a little boy, she gained his trust. He told her everything, but somehow, he didn’t tell her about his crazy plans._

_She felt upset about this._

_“I don’t know. That I was doing the right thing?”_ _He whispers, and Vesta would not have heard it if she wasn’t so close to him._

 _“Violence is never the right thing. I taught you that many years ago.”_ _She holds his chin, making him look at her. He was about to cry, so she just hugs him, like she did when he was just a little boy._ _“It’s never worth it.”_

 _“I understand that now, Mom.”_ _He said, with an amount of sadness in his voice, and it broke her heart into a million pieces._ _“I will accept whatever sentence they give to me.”_

 _“You better.”_ _She says, getting out of their embrace to look at him with a very serious expression, but when he nods, she laughs, making him very confused._ _“You don’t have a shred of common sense. And here was I, hoping you would be the less dramatic of the family.”_

 

_***_

 

“Where’s Sabrina?” Vesta looked around before sitting on her chair and crossing her legs in the process.

“She’s sleeping.” That was the answer given by her sister, Hilda, who was preparing breakfast for everyone. Vesta reaction was an arch of her eyebrow and a glare at her other sister, Zelda.

“Now, I’m confused. I can’t believe you guys don’t wake her early to walk into the Greendale woods and teach her things, like magic.” It was like a family tradition, every Spellman knew every piece of the Greendale woods, why would they change that with Sabrina? “She’s half-mortal, are you guys planning on letting her study on a mortal school too?” By the look on everyone’s faces, she already knew the answer, so she let out an indignant huff and was prepared to say how she was against their decision, but Mary spoke first.

“In our defense, I’m a teacher. And we decided that is best to let Sabrina study on a mortal school so she can be prepared to the struggles the Academy of Unseen Arts may show her.” She said with a soft voice and smiled at Vesta, reassuring her that their decision wasn’t made out of anywhere and the older Spellman sighed, not agreeing or disagreeing with their decision, but before she could say anything, Sabrina enters the kitchen.

“Good morning, family!” She greets them and suddenly pauses when spots Vesta. Her eyes go wide for a couple of seconds and then she narrowed her eyes in Vesta’s direction, walking slowly towards her. The older woman is smiling widely in her direction, more suppressing her laugh than anything else, so when Sabrina stops very close to her and lifts a finger to touch her and see if she’s real, gasping when her finger did not pass through her, Vesta just loses it and starts to laugh. “You’re real!” Sabrina whispers, overwhelmed.

“I am!” She says, still smiling at the little girl, that was looking at her with a lot of questions on her eyes and wonder.

“Sorry to interrupt the moment, but can you explain?” Ambrose breaks the moment and Vesta realizes that everyone stopped whatever they’re doing to watch them with confused faces.

“She’s the woman of my dreams!” Sabrina says excitedly and claps her hands in front of her face. “She always comes to visit me.” Then, she hugs Vesta like they’re old friends.

Everyone is still looking at Vesta as if she had two heads instead of one, so she rolls her eyes and explains. “Astral projection.” Sabrina nod with her head animatedly as if she knew what an astral projection was.

“We will talk about this later, very-old-lady.” Zelda says narrowing her eyes at Vesta and points a finger at her, who just laughs at the nickname.

“Ok, now I’m going to tell Sabrina about the day I fought with her dad because of Astral projections.” Sabrina is still nodding with her head, because she was too excited to hear anecdotes about her dad, Edward, so she sat on her chair, put her hand on her chin and started to listen to her aunt with a level of attention the other members of the family didn't know she had. “One day, we wanted to talk to your Aunt Zelda, but she was not answering our calls on her magic mirror. We got very preoccupied and decided to do an Astral Projection, do you know what that is?” The little girl shook her head and Vesta starts to explain everything to Sabrina. “... Anyways, your dad was very excited to go, but I wanted to go too. He got very angry, but I was the older sister, so I said: ‘I changed your diapers, so I’ll go’ and he whined like a baby.” She whispers the last part and Sabrina laughs. Everyone in the room is suddenly as focused as Sabrina to listen to the story, and Vesta continues. “When I came back from the Astral Projection, your Grandma caught us and gave us a lecture that lasted hours and hours.” She sighs and then immediately smiles and pokes the little girl on the nose. “That’s why you should always obey what your Aunties say about magic, ok? Sometimes it can be dangerous. Always be careful with psychopomps.”

When the older Spellman said she was going to spend a few weeks with them, she was lying, because she actually spent a few months with them. She was the one to wake up early, choose one member of the family to go to the woods with her and Sabrina, and then taught everything she knew about magic to her niece, every day. Hilda always taught her how to make potions and showed her the right herbs to use. Zelda taught her the basic spells she could use and Mary was the one to tell stories about witches to Sabrina. Vesta was always there and really engaged with every topic that her sisters would bring and got to know a lot about Mary Wardwell.

When the days were Ambrose days, they couldn’t leave the house, so they would adapt their walks and Ambrose showed how to do, per example, protection spells around the house. Or they just let Sabrina sleep a little more and had their mother and son moments.

One day, they were all gathered in the living room. Vesta, Ambrose, and Mary playing with little Sabrina, Zelda reading one book for the millionth time and Hilda was just watching them. Then, Vesta leaned closer to Sabrina and pretended to whisper in her ear, but actually, she was saying it loud enough for everyone to hear. “I’m your favorite Auntie, right, little Sabrina?” She said, suppressing a laugh and looking at Sabrina expectantly and the little blonde just nodded. Vesta laughed in delight and Zelda rolled her eyes, Hilda laughed at them and Mary joined Zelda on the team “roll of eyes”.

But Sabrina had other plans, she leaned closer to her Aunt Mary and whispered, but loud enough for everyone to hear. “I don’t have favorite Aunts, I just said it because I want to keep her _very_ happy.” It’s true though, she just confirmed because she wants her Aunt to spend more time living with them and because she will be sad when she goes back to London.

Hilda and Ambrose start a chorus of “Aw’s” and Zelda just smiles too big at the cuteness of Sabrina along with Mary — which is very strange for both of them, but we can’t blame them. I mean, it’s about Sabrina we are talking about. Vesta can’t contain herself with such amount of cuteness and hugs Sabrina very tight, giving her a lot of kisses on the face, making the little girl laugh.

“Sabrina is spending too much time with you, she already knows that she needs to keep your ego intact!” Zelda says, smirking at her older sister, but Vesta’s only reaction is to show her tongue at the redhead, who starts to laugh.

The little girl in the room is not pleased with that attitude. “Auntie Vesta! You can’t show your tongue to people, it’s very rude.”


	7. VII

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm really excited and nervous to see what will be y'all reaction for this chapter, so... tell me everything!

Father Blackwood was like a bissextile year, only appeared on the Spellman house every four years and like the bissextile year he was, not everyone understood why he was in a position of power on the Church of Night and just accepted it without question.

The same way a lot of people don’t understand why every four years we need to live one more day in our lives — the only difference is the fact that there’s a scientific explanation for that.

On Sabrina’s eighth birthday, it wasn’t difficult to say who was more excited, because Zelda certainly would win. The redhead woke up earlier than everyone in the house, an unusual move for her that made everyone worry if she was really in good health, but she was excited for one thing only: the coming of Faustus Blackwood to their house. She knew that he would come for that exact birthday because he was really that predictable, like most of his moves.

She recognized that flaw of him, like many others, like his lack of qualities to be the High Priest but her devotion always made her blind to some sort of things — or pretend to be blind.

And that made Hilda incredibly bothered.

The first person to wake up after Zelda was her, and she entered the kitchen to see the strawberry blonde baking a cake bigger than herself. Hilda eyed the cake suspiciously with furrowed brows and crossed her arms, trying to psychoanalyze her sister’s actions. In the end, she just decided to ask what was on her mind, ”What are you doing, Zelds?”

Zelda disregarded her question and looked at her with one arched brow like it was obvious what she was doing and not unusual at all, but Hilda stared at her sister, expecting a real answer.

”Isn’t obvious, Hilda?” It was the answer, harsh as always, ”I’m baking a cake for our guests.”

Hilda was surprised, Sabrina herself asked for something intimate, nothing more than three friends and her family, and Zelda was acting like she was going to feed an entire town. ”Guests? Who, if may I ask?”

”The Blackwoods, of course.” She explained with a smile and Hilda sighed. She knew that their family had someones who disliked him, but Zelda never noticed. Or maybe she did and decided to pretend to be blind again for the sake of the family. “We’ll have his unholy presence here this morning.” After she said that, someone knocked on the door. Zelda smiled again and the blonde concluded that her sister was smiling more than she smiled the past years. As Zelda walked in the direction of the door, Hilda just watched her and rolled her eyes.

When the door was open, it wasn’t the person Zelda was expecting to see. With that being said, I really can't tell you that she was disappointed to see Mary Wardwell in front of her because that would be a lie. That mixture of feelings passed through her spine and she pulled the only expression she could master, the impassive one. One that, when was given to Mary, came with a softness on her eyes that was difficult to explain.

The only person disappointed on the scene was Lilith because, on the day before, she made Sabrina promise to her that she would wake up earlier to open the door instead of her aunts so she could receive her birthday gift.

”The Sleeping Beauty hasn't woken up yet?” She asks with a smile and Zelda lets her in while gives her a look.

”Sabrina doesn't like this story, she says is unrealistic.” Is the answer the red-haired beauty in front of her gives and the brunette laughs. ”If she hears you calling her that, she will give you a cold shoulder for a week.”

”I wouldn't doubt that, she’s your niece, after all.” Zelda crosses her arms over her chest and stops to stare at the woman beside her. She half closes her eyes, trying to look like she was suspicious, until her brain wandered to another place and she started to ask herself how someone can look so beautiful even with a worried-I-just-said-the-wrong-thing-again expression. She scolded herself for those thoughts and sighed.

”I am a mature woman, I would never do those things.” She scoffs before heading to the kitchen.

Lilith laughs and shakes her head. She watches Zelda for a brief moment and smiles before heading to the kitchen too but something makes her stop on her tracks right before she enters on the kitchen.

It’s the _weird_ question Hilda asks Zelda.

“Zelda, do you remember the day Edward became the High Priest?”

Her tone is thoughtful and Lilith takes a brief look at them, they are turned to the enormous cake placed on the table, Hilda with her arms crossed over her chest and the brunette can sense that she is as thoughtful as her tone, and Zelda straightened her posture.

“Of course.” Lilith stops looking before one of them spots her. “Why would you ask that?”

“So you remember what you whispered to Vesta about Faustus that night?”

Of course Zelda did. “I said so many things to Vesta that night, I can’t remember everything that comes out of my mouth, Hildegard.” Lilith looked at them again long enough to see the strawberry blonde passing her index finger through her hair, trying to get some strands out of her face and turning to face Hilda with a confused expression, it was clear that she wasn’t getting what her sister was trying to say with that cryptic way of hers. “What’s your point?”

While Hilda began to explain, the brunette saw the exact same scene she was describing in front of her, like she was reliving the scene inside Hilda’s memories.

_She found herself standing on the same woods many witches had their Dark Baptism, but the situation was different. The whole coven was gathered to see Edward reborn for the second time to be the High Priest._

_Lilith looked around, she had attended many Dark Baptisms throughout the centuries to find the ceremony the most boring thing in the world. She spotted Edward who was in the middle of a circle with Faustus because he was the chosen one by the Dark Lord to put the crown on Edward’s head and be the speaker of the whole thing. It’s needless to say that he was fuming with anger and his blood was boiling inside._

_And he pretended — badly — the whole time that he was incredibly proud of his student._

_She remembered that the Dark Lord chose Faustus for that task just to make him a pawn on his own game. Well, he always did._

_Lilith remembered that she was seeing with Hilda’s eyes and turned to her side and saw Zelda and Vesta, she got closer to them to listen what they were saying, as Hilda did on that exact same day._

_“I can feel from here the envy Blackwood is feeling right now.”_ _She hears Zelda whispering to Vesta with a smirk and the older Spellman laughs but covers it with a cough._

 _“Well, what goes around comes around.”_ _It was the answer the red-haired beauty got from her older sister._ _“Even the Dark Lord knows that Faustus is not qualified to be his representation on Earth.”_

It was confusing, really. She now understood what Hilda was talking about and when the blonde voiced the question that was too wandering on her mind, _“Now tell me, Zelda, what changed?”_ She found herself eager to hear the answer.

The strawberry blonde took more than a minute to answer the question, and the two words that came out of her mouth were nothing but a lie, _“Nothing changed.”_

Everything changed.

When Beatrice broke her heart, she swore to herself that she was going to do everything that she could to be more devout to the Dark Lord and try her hardest to please him. Faustus was the most important figure in the Coven and the connecting bridge to the Dark Lord himself.

She wasn’t going to question his choices, if he had chosen Faustus, it was because he saw something in him that anyone else did — that kind of thought made absolutely no sense, but she was holding onto it.

Lilith sighed. She understood Zelda in some kind of way, she literally gave up of her critical sense to please and serve her Dark Lord.

Before she could hear what Hilda was going to answer, someone knocked on the door. She straightened her posture and started to walk towards it, but halfway through she stopped and thought better about her actions.

First, she discovered who was knocking on the door. Blackwood. She rolled her eyes and made a quick spell so he couldn’t hear anything that was being said in the kitchen, but she could hear everything even being so far away.

“ _Everything I do is out of devotion for our Dark Lord.”_

Zelda said, making Lilith shook her head before open the door. She looked at Faustus with an impassive expression and he just smiled at her with his cynical way.

 _“That I can believe, considering that you’re madly in love with-“_ Hilda stops for a moment and Lilith can picture Zelda’s look to her sister. While Faustus is still staring at her without saying anything, she just stays with her impassive expression and pays more attention to the conversation. “ _you know who, I can’t imagine you anywhere near him.”_

_“I’m not in love with anyone, Hilda.”_

_“Yeah, and I am a very tall woman.”_ Hilda deadpans. Lilith’s mind works so fast to discover by logic who’s the person they are referring to, that she couldn’t even think about getting inside their heads, something she would do normally.

So, she remained curious.

“Are you still harassing the Spellman family?” Faustus breaks the silence and she gives him a predatory smirk.

She leans closer so she can whisper, “Better, I’ve become part of the family.” What is totally ambiguous, which gives the exact impression she was planning to give.

 _“You’re a very sophisticated woman, I can’t imagine you near a man who has Nosferatu nails and hair that seems that was licked by a cow. I still have faith in your tastes.”_ She was liking Hilda’s attitude, so she smiled bigger and Faustus clenched his jaw with anger because he knew that she was having fun of him.

She really was, mainly because of what Hilda said.

 _“Hildegard.”_ She says as a warning, a very weak one, Lilith knew that she was suppressing a laugh and actually found the insults very creative. _“My love life has nothing to do with what you think.”_

 _Hilda snorts._ _“You know that I’m right.”_

That’s her cue that the conversation was over. Faustus is still glaring at her and she arches her eyebrow, not really understanding what he is expecting with this. So, she just moved to her side and gave him room to enter the house.

She closes the door and starts walking towards the kitchen without looking back to see if he was following her, but he was. When they finally entered the kitchen, Hilda’s eyes went wide for a brief second and she looked at Lilith asking herself if they heard anything, but the demoness just winked at her.

Zelda started to play hostess and Lilith just sat on a chair, watching everything. Eventually, Ambrose and Sabrina woke up and Faustus asked to go to the living room to “discuss Sabrina.” with the matriarch of the family.

“Nosferatu nails, huh?” She asks casually and Hilda stops what she was doing and slowly turns her head to look at Lilith.

She stares at the demoness in shock and breathes a, “You heard.”

“Of course I did.” She smiles. “Sometimes I think you should keep your blasphemies to yourself, but this time it was great to hear you tearing him down.”

“Someone care to explain?” Ambrose who was watching them with his arms crossed and furrowed brows.

“Faustus heard anything?” Ambrose was totally ignored by his aunt, who was preoccupied with just one thing making Lilith laugh.

“Of course not. I did a spell so he couldn’t hear anything.” She says like it was obvious and Hilda just sighed. “It’s offending, really, how you think I would let him hear what you were saying.”

Ambrose and Sabrina exchanged looks and shrugged at the same time because their aunts were acting like there was no one else in the kitchen.

Until they just pretend they weren’t talking because Zelda entered alone in the kitchen. “Well, Father Blackwood just left, but he wished you a happy birthday, Sabrina!” The girl doesn’t say anything, so she just continued talking. “And he said that Lady Blackwood and he would come to your party. Is wonderful that the High Priest of the Church is going to show up on your birthday, it isn’t?”

It was wonderful if they all wanted the Spellman family to grow socially on the coven. But that wasn’t the case, though.

They all looked at Sabrina waiting for her to feign a little more interest on the matter just to make her aunt happy, but the indifference was clear on her voice when she said, “I guess.” And made everyone in the room, except Zelda, suppress their laughter.

 

***

 

Over the years, Lilith and Zelda’s relationship has evolved in unexplainable ways.

The distrust and hate Zelda felt towards the other woman wasn’t there anymore to tell the story. In fact, when she realized that everything about Mary Wardwell’s presence in her house wasn’t unnatural anymore, everything started to fall into place and Zelda fell for her.

She denied for so long, even to herself, until one day she just laid her head on the pillow and with a sigh of defeat, she just accepted what her heart knew since day one.

Everyone on the Spellman family noticed, except Lilith, who had her own mess of feelings to deal with.

For her, the process was even more difficult. She carried the same feelings for a very long time and when she saw that she needed to raise a half-mortal child with Zelda, she asked herself what kind of game The Dark Lord was playing with her. Some days she denied it, was a lot easier on the beginning when Zelda hasn’t accepted her presence there yet; some days she tried to accept it, to deal with all those things she’s been feeling for Zelda but guilt came washing over her because even with her faith for her Dark Lord being shaken, she still felt that sentiment when she felt like betraying him; some days she tried to ignore it, never a success.

Until she just couldn’t fight it any longer.

She got to the point where even Zelda’s way of breathing took her own breath away. Her mind often wandered back to 1961, the time everything was simple and complicated all at once; the time Zelda fell asleep in her arms and all the smiles were directed at her.

And as she realized that what she felt every time she remembered her past with the strawberry blonde was akin to the feeling she sometimes felt when her ideas were against everything she knew about being the Devil’s foot-soldier, she finally gave a name to it.

Because _guilt_ came washing over her again but for another reason this time.

It’s known for a fact that everything about their relationship has evolved. Even though they never took anything to any level. Their love could be lived on its _im_ purest form, and also couldn’t. They never even kissed. One was too stubborn to take any first step and the other was a huge mess.

“Sabrina, I’m sorry.” She said over the phone, the little girl was mad at her because she hasn’t shown up in two days. “I am a teacher, I have a lot of work to do, you know that, dearest.” She wasn’t lying, Lilith had so many papers to grade that she was going to spend at least four days without coming to the Spellman’s home, just calling to check if everything was fine, but Sabrina called her saying that she was missing her, and that melt every part of her that wanted to stay home to do her job.

So she just appeared there with a big folder on her arms.

The little girl opened the door for her and when she realized that her request wasn’t ignored by her aunt, she just opened a big smile and hugged her. “Auntie Mary, I’ll be the most quiet girl in the room so you can finish your work, ok? I’m so happy you came!” She holds her hand and started to drag the brunette to her room, where she had a big table to study.

While her auntie started to grade the papers, Sabrina just watched her holding her head with her hand, showing big interest on what she was doing. When Lilith looked at the girl to see if she was still there, Sabrina just opened a big smile every time. Eventually, Hilda and Zelda stopped by to see what both of them were doing. Hilda with tea and Zelda just to watch. They weren’t amazed by the attention Sabrina was giving to the brunette because Sabrina always showed great interest in almost everything her aunts did.

Until Sabrina had an idea. She hated when her Unholy Godmother didn’t show up because for her, when any piece of the family was missing, everything went missing. She missed watching every time Mary and Zelda started fighting over the silliest things; watching Ambrose throwing jokes at Mary and Zelda, she never understood them, but she laughed at their reactions; watching how Hilda also liked to joke about Zelda, making the redhead roll her eyes but everyone could notice the little smile on her face and how easily Mary and Hilda could engage into a conversation so quickly and spend a good couple of minutes debating over something. Sabrina loved when her family was together, so she decided to hide some of the papers Mary was grading so she could come back on the following day.

For Sabrina’s eight-year-old mind, it was the perfect plan. The problem was, the following day was the day Mary — or Lilith, for those who know her real identity — was craving to stay away from the Spellman family, especially Zelda, because it was the anniversary day of their breakup.

She never showed up on that specific day because it really pained her to even think to do so. She didn’t want to know if the redhead still mourned after all these years, if she isolated herself from the family or pretended that nothing really happened. When Lilith started to live Mary Wardwell’s life, she discovered that fill herself with work was the best manner to ignore her own feelings, so she did it every year.

And when she kicked the trash can of her office, accidentally injuring her toe in the process while realizing Sabrina’s little game, she concluded that she needed a better way to work with her feelings.

She looked at her watch. She still had time to teleport herself into the Spellman’s, find the papers Sabrina hide and teleport back to Baxter High. It was going to be simple.

A piece of cake.

Lilith closed her eyes and teleported herself. She appeared on the stairs, looked at her sides to check if no one was there and started silently climb the stairs. She walked fast to Sabrina’s bedroom, not even bothering to look if Hilda or Zelda were on theirs, and saw the amount of papers over the bed and rolled her eyes. Of course they weren’t well hidden. When she was going back to the stairs, she realized that Zelda’s bedroom door was half-open and her breath stopped when she heard an unmistakable sound. The song.

She just stopped and stared at the door. Lilith fought the urge to open it, she fought it so hard until she couldn’t fight it any longer and opened the door slowly.

Zelda was too immersed on her own pain to notice that someone had invaded the room. She was sitting on the floor, leaning on the side of her own bed, hugging her legs while she listened to their song and stared the ceiling. Lilith swallowed hard when she saw that image and her eyes filled instantly with tears, she just wanted to take the pain from Zelda and feel it all by herself. She slowly walked towards the woman and slowly sat on the floor, by her side. All her movements were soft, she didn’t know what she was doing but didn't want Zelda to push her away.

Those big green eyes shining with tears widened when Zelda noticed her presence there, but before the red-haired beauty could say something, the demoness just grabbed her hand softly and intertwined their fingers together, smiling that smile she only gave to the woman that looked at their hands with surprise and stared at her with furrowed brows.

Realizing that she was showing a side of herself she didn't want anyone to see, Zelda quickly cleaned the tears running on her cheek and looked to her other side. “What are you doing here?”

“I heard the song and came to check if you were fine, seems like you’re not,” Lilith says carefully and Zelda stares at her again, trying to detect any lie coming out of the brunette’s mouth.

“Well, I am fine.” She tries the big old lie that never worked and the other woman squeezes her hand. Zelda sighs. “You don’t need to worry about me, Mary.”

“But I do.” It’s the most sincere answer the demoness could give. Of course she worried about Zelda because she cared too much about her. Seeing her suffering like this was like shooting her own foot.

“Why?”

Lilith blinked. She knew the answer to this question but was just too afraid to say it out loud. The demoness lowered her head and stared at their intertwined hands, there was no way Zelda didn’t know the answer after this. When she looks at Zelda again, she starts to pay more attention to her features, memorizing them. Every time she looked at the other woman, she felt things that she still couldn’t give names.

Her silence was starting to become a nuisance to both of them, and Zelda looking expectantly at her wasn’t helping her with the billions of thoughts that were wandering her mind all at once. “Because I am too fond of you.” Was the only sentence she could express at that moment.

For her surprise, Zelda smiled. “That’s a strange way to say that you have feelings for me.”

And for everyone’s surprise, it was Zelda who leaned closer, brought her hand to caress the other woman’s cheek, pulled her even closer and initiated the kiss. Lilith gasped but quickly brought her hand to the strawberry blonde hair, and surrendered to the kiss. They kissed for the lost time; they kissed for all the feelings they weren’t able to express into words. They kissed until they were out of breath.

With their eyes closed, they just stayed there, keeping their foreheads pressed against each other and trying to process everything that happened.

Lilith sighed. She was processing slowly, but her mind was working fast. “Ah, Zelda. Sweet. Sweet Zelda.” She forgot that this was Beatrice’s line for a moment and just let her whisper fly into Zelda’s ears.

Zelda wasn’t the one who forget things easily.

She moved away from their embrace abruptly and got up, startling Lilith, and her eyes widened. “Wh-what you just said?” She asked, her voice weak and Lilith could notice that she was trembling.

The demoness cursed herself. With a few words that meant almost everything in the past being said at this point in her life, she watched silently every aspect of their relationship that evolved fading away in front of her eyes. Zelda was demanding an answer she couldn’t give; she was demanding the truth Lilith was too afraid to tell.

“Zelda, I-“ She tripped on her own words. The woman who had an answer on the tip of her tongue at almost everything, was there, speechless. She wasn’t even able to deliver a proper lie, because her reaction was too desperate and her expression gave everything away. “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.” She said weakly, looking right into Zelda’s green eyes.

With furrowed brows, Zelda crossed her arms over her chest and stared hard at her. “I think you have some explaining to do.”

Lilith had no other escape, so she just nodded and started to tell everything since the beginning and revealed herself in the process. She said every word carefully, watching how Zelda was reacting to all new pieces of information and feeling the pain of seeing her crying all over again. She couldn’t just get up and leave like she did in 1961.

“What does the Dark Lord wanted from me? What does he want from Sabrina? Are you here just to hurt me again?” Lilith doesn’t the answer to the first two questions, so she just sighs and tries to get closer, but gives up in the middle of the process.

“Zelda,” She breathes. “I’m not here to hurt you.” She shouldn’t even be on this position right now. Her mission was to lead Sabrina to the right path, not become attached to her family and not discover that she hadn’t moved on from the feelings she had towards the little girl’s aunt and that those feelings were reciprocated.

Everything was a mess. She was a mess.

“And yet, you are.”

A punch on her stomach would have hurt less. Desperation was taking full control of the body that now was hers, tears were already running down her cheek because she was just too tired to keep fighting them. She looked down at her hands, she couldn’t face Zelda’s pain any longer, she wasn’t even able to face her own pain.

She spent a good couple of minutes in silence. Her mind was still working fast, but every sentence that she was able to formulate inside her head was lost when she tried to say them. Until Zelda couldn’t bare her presence there any longer and decided to speak up, “Get out.”

The demoness looked up again, “Zelda…” She called for the woman’s name like a plead and tried to reach for her again but Zelda just flinched and looked at her like she was the person she most hated in the whole universe. Lilith felt little, she felt like nothing, and regret was washing over her while she cursed her whole existence.

“Leave.”

And she left.

Lilith teleported herself back to her office on Baxter High and filled herself with even more work than she had before because that was the way she worked to ignore all that pain she was feeling.

**Author's Note:**

> don't forget to give me the feedback i (may) deserve!


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